Crawley house prices dropped slightly in September

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 5.4% annual growth.

The average Crawley house price in September was £299,977, Land Registry figures show – a 0.3% decrease on August.

Over the month, the picture was worse than that across the South East, where prices increased 3%, and Crawley underperformed compared to the 2.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Crawley rose by £15,000 – putting the area 60th among the South East’s 70 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Rother, where property prices increased on average by 21.2%, to £359,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Runnymede lost 1.6% of their value, giving an average price of £408,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of terraced houses fared worst in Crawley in September – they dropped 0.6% in price, to £296,469 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 5%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: down 0.2% monthly; up 6.7% annually; £603,151 average

Semi-detached: up 0.1% monthly; up 7.5% annually; £391,101 average

Flats: down 0.1% monthly; up 4.1% annually; £195,008 average

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Crawley spent an average of £270,000 on their property – £13,000 more than a year ago, and £25,000 more than in September 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £340,000 on average in September – 25.6% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Crawley compare?

Buyers paid 19.1% less than the average price in the South East (£371,000) in September for a property in Crawley. Across the South East, property prices are higher than those across the UK, where the average cost £270,000.

The most expensive properties in the South East were in Elmbridge – £664,000 on average, and 2.2 times as much as in Crawley. Elmbridge properties cost 2.9 times as much as homes in Southampton (£230,000 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 September

Crawley: £299,977

The South East: £370,886

UK: £269,945

Annual growth to September

Crawley: +5.4%

The South East: +11.7%

UK: +11.8%

Best and worst annual growth in the South East

Rother: +21.2%

Runnymede: -1.6%