Solihull house prices dropped in March

House prices dropped by 1.6% in Solihull in March, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow by 6.4% over the last year.

The average Solihull house price in March was £337,198, Land Registry figures show – a 1.6% decrease on February.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across West Midlands, where prices decreased 4%, but Solihull was lower than the 1.2% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Solihull rose by £20,000 – putting the area 17th among West Midlands’s 30 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Nuneaton and Bedworth, where property prices increased on average by 11.4%, to £243,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Newcastle-under-Lyme gained 2.6% in value, giving an average price of £189,000.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Solihull spent an average of £264,000 on their property – £15,000 more than a year ago, and £48,000 more than in March 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £391,000 on average in March – 47.7% more than first-time buyers.

Property types

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest fall in property prices Solihull in March – they dropped 2.3% in price, to £254,452 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 6.1%.

Among other types of property:

• Detached: down 1.2% monthly; up 6.8% annually; £592,062 average
• Semi-detached: down 1.8% monthly; up 6.2% annually; £344,615 average
• Flats: down 1.5% monthly; up 5.6% annually; £181,327 average

How do property prices in Solihull compare?

Buyers paid 37.6% more than the average price in West Midlands (£245,000) in March for a property in Solihull. Across West Midlands, property prices are high compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £285,000.

The most expensive properties in West Midlands were in Stratford-on-Avon – £387,000 on average, and 1.1 times as much as more than in Solihull. Stratford-on-Avon properties cost 2.7 times as much as homes in Stoke (£145,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in E09000020.

Factfile

Average property price in March

• Solihull: £337,198
• West Midlands:£245,132
• UK: £285,009

Annual growth to March

• Solihull: +6.4%
• West Midlands: +3.4%
• UK: +4.1%

Highest and lowest annual growth in West Midlands

• Nuneaton and Bedworth: +11.4%
• Newcastle-under-Lyme: +2.6%