HOUSE prices in the Forest of Dean crept up by 0.9 per cent in June, contributing to a 10.1 per cent rise over the last 12 months.

The latest data from the Office of National Statistics shows that the average property in the area sold for £230,756 - slightly above the UK average of £228,384.

Across the South West property prices have risen by 3.1 per cent in the last year, to £252,558, slightly outperforming the UK as whole, which saw a three per cent increase.

The data comes from the House Price Index, which the ONS compiles using house sale information from the Land Registry, and the equivalent bodies in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The Forest saw the 11th largest average price increase of any authority in the UK over the last 12 months, and the average homeowner will have seen their property jump in value by around £54,000 in the last five years.

The figures also showed that buyers who made their first step onto the property ladder in the Forest in June spent an average of £183,601 - around £43,000 more than it would have cost them five years ago.

Between May last year and April this year, 1,393 homes were sold in the Forest, two per cent fewer than in the previous year.

Lawrence Bowles, the associate director of the research team at the estate agents Savills, said the national figures were a “mixed picture” for homeowners.

“Broadly speaking the story of three per cent price growth across the country, over the last 12 months, is faster than inflation,” he explained.

The areas that fared best were the West and East Midlands, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. By contrast, London house prices fell at their fastest pace since 2009.

The reduction in jobseekers from the EU due to Brexit was cited as one reason for the drop in demand in the capital.