Westminster house prices dropped in July

House prices dropped by 3% in Westminster in July, new figures show.

The drop contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer a 2.9% annual decline.

The average Westminster house price in July was £954,356, Land Registry figures show – a 3% decrease on June.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across London, where prices increased 1.1%, and Westminster was lower than the 0.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Westminster fell by £28,000 – putting the area 30th among London’s 33 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in City of London, where property prices increased on average by 5%, to £905,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Kensington and Chelsea lost 10.8% of their value, giving an average price of £1,345,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Westminster spent an average of £863,000 on their property – £25,000 less than a year ago, and £16,000 less than in July 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £1,041,000 on average in July – 20.5% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of flats saw the biggest fall in property prices in Westminster in July – they dropped 3.1% in price, to £887,632 on average. Over the last year, prices dropped by 2.7%.

Among other types of property:

• Detached: down 1.8% monthly; down 3.2% annually; £2,988,671 average
• Semi-detached: down 2.2% monthly; down 4.3% annually; £2,560,554 average
• Terraced: down 2.3% monthly; down 3.6% annually; £1,697,329 average

How do property prices in Westminster compare?

Buyers paid 78.6% more than the average price in London (£534,000) in July for a property in Westminster. Across London, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £290,000.

The most expensive properties in London were in Kensington and Chelsea – £1.3 million on average, and 1.4 times the price as in Westminster. Kensington and Chelsea properties cost 3.9 times the price as homes in Barking and Dagenham (£343,000 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 July

• Westminster: £954,356
• London:£534,265
• UK: £289,824

Annual change to July

• Westminster: -2.9%
• London: -0.8%
• UK: +0.6%

Highest and lowest annual growth in London

• City of London: +5%
• Kensington and Chelsea: -10.8%