Here is how much Crawley house prices dropped in March, according to new figures

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 0.5% annual growth.

The average Crawley house price in March was £280,490, Land Registry figures show – a 1.4% decrease on February.

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Over the month, the picture was worse than that across the South East, where prices increased 0.9%, and Crawley underperformed compared to the 1.8% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Crawley rose by £1,400 – putting the area 69th among the South East’s 70 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Lewes, where property prices increased on average by 13.8%, to £357,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Hart lost 0.1% of their value, giving an average price of £408,000.

Winners and Losers

Owners of detached houses fared worst in Crawley in March – they dropped 1.5% in price, to £560,791 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 1.7%.

Among other types of property:

Terraced: down 1.3% monthly; up 2.1% annually; £280,654 average

Flats: down 1.4% monthly; down 2.2% annually; £181,979 average

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Crawley spent an average of £253,100 on their property – £420 more than a year ago, and £14,920 more than in March 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £317,010 on average in March – 25.3% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Crawley compare?

Buyers paid 19.5% less than the average price in the South East (£349,000) in March for a property in Crawley. Across the South East, property prices are higher than those across the UK, where the average cost £256,000.

The most expensive properties in the South East were in Elmbridge – £662,000 on average, and 2.4 times as much as in Crawley. Elmbridge properties cost three times as much as homes in Southampton (£219,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average March sale price of £1.3 million could buy 14 properties in Burnley (average £94,000).

Factfile

Average property price in March

Crawley: £280,490

The South East: £348,615

UK: £256,405

Annual growth to March

Crawley: +0.5%

The South East: +7.9%

UK: +10.2%

Best and worst annual growth in the South East

Lewes: +13.8%

Hart: -0.1%