Doncaster house prices down by 2.8% in January

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the average property in the area sold for £123,062 – significantly lower than the UK average of £228,147.

Across Yorkshire and The Humber, property prices have risen by 2.9% in the last year, to £160,420. The region outperformed the UK as a whole, which saw the average property value increase by 1.7%.

The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The average homeowner in Doncaster will have seen their property jump in value by around £13,000 in the last five years.

The figures also showed that buyers who made their first step onto the property ladder in Doncaster in January spent an average of £109,926 – around £11,000 more than it would have cost them five years ago.

Residential research analyst at estate agent Savills, Lawrence Bowles, said that house prices had dropped nationally in real terms for the first time in five years.

He said: "This month’s ONS house price index shows slowing growth, with UK house prices growing just 1.7% in the year to January 2019. That’s compared to 4.3% growth this time last year. "It’s also below inflation for the same period – 1.8% – which means UK house prices have fallen in real terms for the first time since July 2013.

"Regions in the Midlands and North are still showing robust house price growth: Wales showed the fastest house price growth in Britain, followed by the midlands.

"Affordability in these regions is less constrained than in London and the south, which leaves more capacity for prices to rise." Between December 2017 and November last year, the most recent 12 months for which sales volume data is available, 4,460 homes were sold in Doncaster, 5% fewer than in the previous year.

The highest house prices in the country in December were found in London's Kensington and Chelsea, where properties sold for an average of £1.41 million – 18 times the cost of a home in Burnley, where the average property cost just £78,000.