House prices increased in Conwy in January, new figures show.

​The ​boost ​contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area ​achieve 7.4% annual growth​.

The average Conwy house price in January was £178,289, Land Registry figures show​ – a 2.1% increase on December.

Over the month, the picture was ​better than that across Wales, where prices ​decreased 2.9%​, and Conwy outperformed the 1.1% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Conwy ​​rose by £12,000 – putting the ​area second among Wales’s 22 local authorities for annual growth.

​The best annual growth in the region was in Neath Port Talbot, where properties increased on average by 8.8%, to £123,000. ​At the other end of the scale, properties in Ceredigion dropped 4.7% in value, giving an average price of £178,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Conwy in January – they increased 2.7%, to £139,504 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 8.5%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: up 1.7% monthly; up 7% annually; £249,365 average

Semi-detached: up 2.5% monthly; up 8.8% annually; £172,956 average

Flats: up 1.6% monthly; up 4.9% annually; £111,952 average​

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Conwy spent an average of £​155,000 on their property – ​£11,000 more than a year ago, ​and ​£31,000 more than in January 2015.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £​202,000 on average in January​ – 29.8% more than first-time buyers.​

How do property prices in Conwy compare?​

Buyers paid 10.2% more than the average price in Wales (£162,000) in January for a property in Conwy. Across Wales, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £231,000.

The most expensive properties in Wales were in Monmouthshire – £276,000 on average, and 1.5 times as much as in Conwy. Monmouthshire properties cost 3.1 times as much as homes in Blaenau Gwent (£88,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average January sale price of £1.2 million could buy 14 properties in Burnley (average £86,000).

Average property price in January

Conwy: £178,289

Wales: £161,719

UK: £231,185

Annual growth to January

Conwy: +7.4%

Wales: +2.0%

UK: +1.3%

Best and worst annual growth in Wales

Neath Port Talbot: +8.8%

Ceredigion: -4.7%