Bedford house prices dropped slightly in January

House prices dropped slightly, by 0.7%, in Bedford in January, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 1.8% annual decline.

The average Bedford house price in January was £333,160, Land Registry figures show – a 0.7% decrease on December.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across the East of England, where prices increased 1.2%, and Bedford was lower than the 0.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Bedford fell by £6,200 – putting the area 16th among the East of England’s 45 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in East Cambridgeshire, where property prices increased on average by 9.1%, to £352,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Ipswich lost 11.3% of their value, giving an average price of £213,000.

FIRST STEPS ON THE PROPERTY LADDER

First-time buyers in Bedford spent an average of £270,300 on their property – £4,300 less than a year ago, but £36,700 more than in January 2019.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £377,400 on average in January – 39.6% more than first-time buyers.

PROPERTY TYPES

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Bedford in January – they dropped 1.3% in price, to £175,776 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 3.6%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: down 0.5% monthly; down 1.3% annually; £542,627 average

Semi-detached: down 0.6% monthly; down 0.9% annually; £337,397 average

Terraced: down 0.8% monthly; down 2.5% annually; £261,772 average

HOW DO PROPERTY PRICES IN BEDFORD COMPARE?

Buyers paid 1% less than the average price in the East of England (£337,000) in January for a property in Bedford. Across the East of England, property prices are higher than those across the UK, where the average cost is £282,000.

The most expensive properties in the East of England were in Three Rivers – £558,000 on average, and 1.7 times the price as in Bedford. Three Rivers properties cost 2.7 times the price as homes in Great Yarmouth (£210,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, at £1.2 million.