House prices dropped by 2.7 per cent – more than the average for Wales – in Gwynedd in March, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 3.8 per cent annual decline – the worst in Wales.

The average Gwynedd house price in March was £198,497, Land Registry figures show – a 2.7 per cent decrease on February.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across Wales, where prices decreased 0.6 per cent, and Gwynedd was lower than the 1.2 per cent drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Gwynedd fell by £7,900 – putting the area bottom among Wales’s 22 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Neath Port Talbot, where property prices increased on average by 11.2 per cent, to £167,000.

First-time buyers in Gwynedd spent an average of £173,000 on their property – £7,100 less than a year ago, but £45,500 more than in March 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £228,000 on average in March – 31.8 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest fall in property prices Gwynedd in March – they dropped 3.1 per cent in price, to £151,688 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 4 per cent.

Among other types of property:

Buyers paid 7.3 per cent less than the average price in Wales (£214,000) in March for a property in Gwynedd. Across Wales, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost £285,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £358,000 on average, and 1.8 times as much as more than in Gwynedd. Monmouthshire properties cost 2.7 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£135,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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