House prices dropped slightly, by 0.4%, in Carmarthenshire in May, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow by 4.1% over the last year.

The average Carmarthenshire house price in May was £205,498, Land Registry figures show – a 0.4% decrease on April.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices increased 0.6%, and Carmarthenshire was lower than the UK as a whole, where prices did not change.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Carmarthenshire rose by £8,100 – putting the area seventh among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Monmouthshire, where property prices increased on average by 7.4%, to £367,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Pembrokeshire lost 1.3% of their value, giving an average price of £233,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Carmarthenshire spent an average of £180,700 on their property – £6,900 more than a year ago, and £58,700 more than in May 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £231,200 on average in May – 27.9% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Carmarthenshire in May – they dropped 0.6% in price, to £280,443 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 4.2%.

Among other types of property:

How do property prices in Carmarthenshire compare?

Buyers paid 3.7% less than the average price in Wales (£213,000) in May for a property in Carmarthenshire. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £286,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £367,000 on average, and 1.8 times the price as in Carmarthenshire. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.8 times the price as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£129,000 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 May

Annual growth to May

Highest and lowest annual growth in Wales