House prices dropped slightly, by 0.5%, in Carmarthenshire in April, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow by 13.7% over the last year.

An imbalance between supply and demand for properties has remained the primary reason behind climbing house prices across the UK throughout the pandemic.

The need for larger deposits and constraints on accessing mortgages have pushed homeownership further out of reach for many first-time buyers – despite Government figures showing 50% of renters would be able to afford the monthly payments.

In a recent major speech in Blackpool, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a “comprehensive review” of the mortgage market would take place in a bid to help more people onto the property ladder.

The average Carmarthenshire house price in April was £197,079, Land Registry figures show – a 0.5% decrease on March.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 2.2%, and Carmarthenshire was lower than the 1.1% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Carmarthenshire rose by £24,000 – putting the area 13th among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Ceredigion, where property prices increased on average by 23%, to £260,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Denbighshire gained just 9.2% in value, giving an average price of £195,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Carmarthenshire spent an average of £174,000 on their property – £21,000 more than a year ago, and £56,000 more than in April 2017.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £221,000 on average in April – 27.5% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices Carmarthenshire in April – they dropped 0.9% in price, to £111,651 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 7.9%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Carmarthenshire compare?

Buyers paid 7% less than the average price in Wales (£212,000) in April for a property in Carmarthenshire. Across Wales, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost £281,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £346,000 on average, and 1.8 times as much as more than in Carmarthenshire. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.6 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£132,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea.

Factfile

Average property price in April

Annual growth to April

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales