Dorset house prices dropped in July
House prices in Dorset fell in July, but it doesn't reverse the long-term trend of prices going up
House prices dropped by 2.9% in Dorset in July, new figures show.
But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 6.1% annual growth.
The average Dorset house price in July was £306,752, Land Registry figures show – a 2.9% decrease on June.
Over the month, the picture was better than that across the South West, where prices decreased 5.8%, and Dorset outperformed the 3.7% drop for the UK as a whole.
Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Dorset rose by £18,000 – putting the area 26th among the South West’s 32 local authorities for annual growth.
The best annual growth in the region was in North Devon, where property prices increased on average by 22.5%, to £291,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Cheltenham gained 3.5% in value, giving an average price of £288,000.
Winners and Losers
Owners of detached houses fared worst in Dorset in July – they dropped 3.1% in price, to £170,608 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 6.8%.
Among other types of property:
Semi-detached: down 2.7% monthly; up 6.2% annually; £297,355 average
Terraced: down 2.9% monthly; up 6.9% annually; £241,084 average
Flats: down 2.5% monthly; up 3.3% annually; £170,608 average
First steps on the property ladder
First-time buyers in Dorset spent an average of £241,000 on their property – £13,000 more than a year ago, and £32,000 more than in July 2016.
By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £342,000 on average in July – 42.2% more than first-time buyers.
How do property prices in Dorset compare?
Buyers paid 10.7% more than the average price in the South West (£277,000) in July for a property in Dorset. Across the South West, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £256,000.
The most expensive properties in the South West were in the Cotswolds – £406,000 on average, and 1.3 times as much as in Dorset. The Cotswolds properties cost 2.1 times as much as homes in Plymouth (£193,000 average), at the other end of the scale.
The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average July sale price of £1.3 million could buy 13 properties in Burnley (average £101,000).