Average house price revealed in the Banbury area - and how it compares to other areas

House prices increased slightly in the Cherwell district in May, new figures show.

The increase contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 5.4% annual growth.

The average Cherwell house price in May was £291,810, Land Registry figures show – a 0.4% increase on April.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across the South East, where prices decreased 1.1%, and Cherwell outperformed the 0.3% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Cherwell rose by £15,000 – putting the area ninth among the South East’s 67 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in West Oxfordshire, where properties increased on average by 9.4%, to £347,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Slough dropped 2.8% in value, giving an average price of £284,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in the Cherwell district in May – they increased 0.6%, to £487,199 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 6.6%.

Among other types of property:

-Terraced: remained level over the month; up 4.7% annually; £239,708 average

- Flats: up 0.3% monthly; up 2.4% annually; £159,393 average

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Cherwell spent an average of £240,000 on their property – £12,000 more than a year ago, and £23,000 more than in May 2015.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £334,000 on average in May – 39.0% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Cherwell compare?

Buyers paid 10.1% less than the average price in the South East (£325,000) in May for a property in Cherwell. Across the South East, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £236,000.

The most expensive properties in the South East were in Elmbridge – £594,000 on average, and twice as much as in Cherwell. Elmbridge properties cost 2.8 times as much as homes in Southampton (£210,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average May sale price of £1.4 million could buy 16 properties in Burnley (average £88,000).

FACTFILE

Average property price in May

- Cherwell: £291,810

- The South East: £324,659

- UK: £235,673

Annual growth to May

- Cherwell: +5.4%

- The South East: +2.0%

- UK: +2.9%

Best and worst annual growth in the South East

- West Oxfordshire: +9.4%

- Slough: -2.8%