THE average price for a house in Warrington has shown a slight fall, according to the latest available data from the property market.

House prices dropped slightly by 0.7 per cent in the town in March, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 11.7 per cent annual growth.

The average Warrington house price in March was £243,533, Land Registry figures show – a 0.7 per cent decrease on February.

Over the month, the picture was worse for sellers than that across the north west, where prices increased by 0.4 per cent, and Warrington underperformed compared to the 0.3 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Warrington rose by £26,000 – putting the area 15th among the North West’s 39 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Hyndburn, where property prices increased on average by 22.6 per cent to £129,000.

At the other end of the scale, properties in Barrow gained just 3.4 per cent in value, giving an average price of £138,000.

Owners of flats fared worst in Warrington in March – they dropped 1.2 per cent in price to £136,073 on average.

Detached homes were down 0.5 per cent monthly to an average of £421,204, while semi-detached were down 0.6 per cent to £238,267 and terraced down one per cent to £187,747.

First-time buyers in Warrington spent an average of £200,000 on their property – £20,000 more than a year ago, and £54,000 more than in March 2017.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £283,000 on average in March – 41.7 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 18.7 per cent more than the average price in the north west at £205,000 in March for a property in Warrington.

The most expensive properties in the North West were in Trafford – £351,000 on average and 1.4 times as much as more than in Warrington.

Trafford properties cost 3.2 times as much as homes in Burnley (£111,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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