Peterborough house prices underperforming compared to rest of UK, dropping in December

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 0.6 per cent annual growth.

The average Peterborough house price in December was £196,132, Land Registry figures show – a 1.5 per cent decrease on November.

Over the month, the picture was worse than that across the East of England, where prices increased 2.4 per cent, and Peterborough underperformed compared to the 1.2 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Peterborough rose by £1,100 – putting the area 46th among the East of England’s 50 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Breckland, where property prices increased on average by 10.1 per cent, to £246,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Harlow lost 1.3 per cent of their value, giving an average price of £271,000.

Owners of semi-detached houses fared worst in Peterborough in December – they dropped 1.7 per cent in price, to £198,053 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 0.4 per cent.

Among other types of property:

Detached: down 1.5 per cent monthly; up 1.8 per cent annually; £314,939 average; Terraced: down 1.2 per cent monthly; up 1.1 per cent annually; £157,065 average; Flats: down 1.6 per cent monthly; down 2.4 per cent annually; £104,946 average.

First-time buyers in Peterborough spent an average of £164,740 on their property – £270 more than a year ago, and £27,710 more than five years ago in November 2015.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £221,710 on average in December – 34.6 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 36.9 per cent less than the average price in the East of England (£311,000) in December for a property in Peterborough. Across the East of England, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £252,000.

The most expensive properties in the East of England were in St Albans – £530,000 on average, and 2.7 times as much as in Peterborough. St Albans properties cost 2.8 times as much as homes in Great Yarmouth (£186,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average December sale price of £1.3 million could buy 13 properties in Burnley (average £98,000).