Cherwell house prices down by 2.6% in November

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the average property in the area sold for £286,845 – significantly higher than the UK average of £230,630.

Across the South East, property prices have risen by 1.1% in the last year, to £323,876. The region underperformed compared to the UK as a whole, which saw the average property value increase by 2.8%.

The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Cherwell saw the 18th-largest average price drop of any authority in the UK over the last 12 months, however the average homeowner will have seen their property jump in value by around £56,000 in the last five years.

The figures also showed that buyers who made their first step onto the property ladder in Cherwell in November spent an average of £236,691 – around £47,000 more than it would have cost them five years ago.

Lawrence Bowles, research analyst at estate agents Savills, said: “We saw a slight growth in UK house prices in the year to November, but that’s slower growth than we saw saw a couple of months ago, in September. Last month aside, it is the slowest growth in over five years, since July 2013.

"We are still seeing house price growth in real terms, but very limited.

"The fastest growth is in the regions, particularly in Wales and the Midlands. Growth in London, where affordability is most stretched, is slower.

"We expect to see that ripple effect from London continue, with our forecast showing the fastest house price growth to come in the North."

Between October 2017 and September last year, the most recent 12 months for which sales volume data is available, 2,586 homes were sold in Cherwell, 5% fewer than in the previous year.

The highest house prices in the country in November were found in London's Kensington and Chelsea, where properties sold for an average of £1.29 million – 16 times the cost of a home in Burnley, where the average property cost just £82,800.