Croydon house prices dropped slightly in December

House prices dropped slightly, by 0.2%, in Croydon in December, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 7.1% annual growth.

The average Croydon house price in December was £406,896, Land Registry figures show – a 0.2% decrease on November.

Over the month, the picture was worse than that across London, where prices increased 0.2%, and Croydon underperformed compared to the 0.8% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Croydon rose by £27,000 – putting the area 14th among London’s 33 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Camden, where property prices increased on average by 16.2%, to £915,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Tower Hamlets lost 4.9% of their value, giving an average price of £442,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of flats fared worst in Croydon in December – they dropped 0.4% in price, to £285,613 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 5.1%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: up 0.4% monthly; up 11.7% annually; £889,762 averageSemi-detached: down 0.1% monthly; up 9.3% annually; £559,975 averageTerraced: down 0.3% monthly; up 5.9% annually; £399,916 average

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Croydon spent an average of £339,000 on their property – £19,000 more than a year ago, and £30,000 more than in December 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £490,000 on average in December – 44.8% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Croydon compare?

Buyers paid 21.9% less than the average price in London (£521,000) in December for a property in Croydon. Across London, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £275,000.

The most expensive properties in London were in Kensington and Chelsea – £1.4 million on average, and 3.4 times as much as more than in Croydon. Kensington and Chelsea properties cost 4.1 times as much as homes in Barking and Dagenham (£332,000 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 December

Croydon: £406,896London:£521,146UK: £274,712

Annual growth to December

Croydon: +7.1%London: +5.5%UK: +10.8%

Best and worst annual growth in London

Camden: +16.2%Tower Hamlets: -4.9%