Wigan house prices dropped slightly in April

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow byseven per cent over the last year.

The average Wigan house price in April was £184,320, Land Registry figures show – a 0.6 per cent decrease on March.

Over the month, the picture was different from that across the North West, where prices increased 0.7 per cent, and Wigan was lower than the 0.5 per cent rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Wigan rose by £12,000 – putting the area ninth among the North West’s 35 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Fylde, where property prices increased on average by 15.5 per cent, to £249,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Blackpool gained 0.4% per cent in value, giving an average price of £130,000.

First-time buyers in Wigan spent an average of £163,000 on their property – £10,000 more than a year ago, and £49,000 more than in April 2018.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £206,000 on average in April – 26.7 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest fall in property prices in Wigan in April – they dropped one per cent in price, to £139,136 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 5.6 per cent.

Detached home prices were down 0.2 per cent monthly but were up 9.3 per cent annually there now being a £314,519 average.

Semi-detached house prices fell by 0.5 per cent monthly but were up 7.2 per cent annually to a £186,193 average.

And flat prices declined by 0.3 per cent monthly but have been up 5.6 per cent annually to a £96,605 average.

Buyers paid 13.4 per cent less than the average price in the North West (£213,000) in April for a property in Wigan. Across the North West, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £286,000.

The most expensive properties in the North West were in Trafford – £363,000 on average, and twice the price as in Wigan. Trafford properties cost 3.2 times the price as homes in Burnley (£115,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea.