House prices increased in Denbighshire in December, new figures show.

​The ​boost ​contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area ​achieve 8.5% annual growth​.

The average Denbighshire house price in December was £164,062, Land Registry figures show​ – a 2% increase on November.

Over the month, the picture was ​better than that across Wales, where prices ​decreased 2.0%​, and Denbighshire outperformed the 0.3% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Denbighshire ​​rose by £13,000 – putting the ​area fourth among Wales’s 22 local authorities for annual growth.

​The best annual growth in the region was in Blaenau Gwent, where properties increased on average by 14.2%, to £102,000. ​At the other end of the scale, properties in Ceredigion dropped 2.1% in value, giving an average price of £184,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Denbighshire in December – they increased 2.3%, to £207,124 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 8.5%.

Among other types of property:

Semi-detached: up 1.9% monthly; up 8.9% annually; £147,156 average

Terraced: up 1.5% monthly; up 8.1% annually; £115,655 average

Flats: up 1.2% monthly; up 6.2% annually; £85,781 average​

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Denbighshire spent an average of £​146,000 on their property – ​£11,000 more than a year ago, ​and ​£25,000 more than in December 2014.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £​181,000 on average in December​ – 23.9% more than first-time buyers.​

How do property prices in Denbighshire compare?​

Buyers paid 1.0% less than the average price in Wales (£166,000) in December for a property in Denbighshire. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £235,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £280,000 on average, and 1.7 times as much as in Denbighshire. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.8 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£102,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average December sale price of £1.3 million could buy 14 properties in Burnley (average £92,000).

Factfile

Average property price in December

Denbighshire: £164,062

Wales: £165,735

UK: £234,742

Annual growth to December

Denbighshire: +8.5%

Wales: +2.2%

UK: +2.2%

Best and worst annual growth in Wales

Blaenau Gwent: +14.2%

Ceredigion: -2.1%