House prices in Cheltenham fell at more than the South West average in December.

House prices in the town dropped by 2%, according to the latest figures from HM Land Registry.

The longer-term trend has seen Cheltenham property prices fall by 4.1% annually, as reported by MSN.com.

The average Cheltenham house price in December was £328,312 - a 2% decrease on November.

Nationally, house prices rose 0.1% in December, while the South West as a whole saw an average 0.5% fall from November.

Over the last year, the average property sale price of in Cheltenham has fallen by £14,000 - putting the town in 21st of the South West's 26 local authorities.

First-time buyers in Cheltenham splashed out an average of £272,000 on their first home - £11,000 less than a year ago, but £39,000 more than in December 2018.

People who have already bought at least one home spent an average of £383,000 on average in December - 40.5% more than first-time buyers.

Detached houses had the biggest price fall in Cheltenham in December - going down an average of 2.8% to £607,081. Over the last year, the price of detached houses in the town has dropped by 4.7%.

Among other types of property:

• Semi-detached: down 1.9% monthly and 3.7% annually to £387,272 average

• Terraced: down 2.2% monthly and 4.5% annually to £310,010 average

• Flats: down 1.6% monthly and 3.8% annually to £214,084 average

Despite the price fall, buyers in Cheltenham still paid 2.9% more than the average price in the South West (£319,000) in December.

Across the South West, average property prices are higher than across the UK, where the average price is £285,000.

Gloucestershire also saw the most expensive properties in the South West - in Cotswold, where the average price was £486,000 - 1.5 times the price as in Cheltenham. Properties in Cotswold were 2.2 times higher than those in Plymouth (£218,000 average) at the other end of the scale.

The highest annual growth in the region was in South Hams in Devon, where property prices rose by an average of 5.6%, to £449,000. At the other end of the scale, homes in Torridge in Devon lost 8.9% of their value, with an average price of £303,000.