House prices continue to rise in Lancaster

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 13% annual growth.

The average Lancaster house price in January was £190,820, Land Registry figures show – a 1.3% increase on December.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across the North West, where prices decreased 0.3%, and Lancaster outperformed the 0.4% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Lancaster rose by £22,000 – putting the area 12th among the North West’s 39 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Tameside, where property prices increased on average by 19.1%, to £200,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Allerdale gained just 2.5% in value, giving an average price of £170,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of flats saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Lancaster in January – they increased 1.5%, to £112,509 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 8.9%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: up 0.9% monthly; up 16.2% annually; £332,577 average; semi-detached: up 1.5% monthly; up 13.5% annually; £202,319 average; terraced: up 1.3% monthly; up 12% annually; £163,871 average.

See inside beautiful £1.25m barn conversion in highly sought after village of Aldcliffe near Lancaster

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Lancaster spent an average of £167,000 on their property – £18,000 more than a year ago, and £36,000 more than in January 2017.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £214,000 on average in January – 27.7% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Lancaster compare?

Buyers paid 4.5% less than the average price in the North West (£200,000) in January for a property in Lancaster. Across the North West, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost £274,000.

The most expensive properties in the North West were in Trafford – £347,000 on average, and 1.8 times as much as more than in Lancaster. Trafford properties cost 3.1 times as much as homes in Burnley (£110,000 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 January

Lancaster: £190,820; the North West: £199,791; UK: £273,762Annual growth to January.