Chorley property prices fell at the start of the year with owners of flats seeing the biggest fall in value, new figures show

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 6.1% annual growth.

The average Chorley house price in January was £192,177, Land Registry figures show – which is a 2.4% decrease on December.

Over the month, the picture was worse than that across the North West where prices increased 0.7%, and Chorley underperformed compared to the 0.5% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Chorley rose by £11,000 – putting the area 40th among the North West’s 43 local authorities for annual growth.

Owners of flats fared worst in Chorley in January – they dropped 3.2% in price, to £114,904 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 2.4%.

In January, the average price of a property in Chorley was £192,177. This is compared to the North West as a whole, where the price was £184,234. The average was £249,309 across the UK.

Here's some property price facts:

Detached: down 2.6% monthly; up 7% annually; £289,194 average

Semi-detached: down 2.1% monthly; up 6% annually; £175,793 average

Terraced: down 2.5% monthly; up 6% annually; £136,756 average

First-time buyers in Chorley spent an average of £155,200 on their property – £8,500 more than a year ago, and £22,200 more than in December 2015.

The most expensive properties in the North West were in Trafford – £331,000 on average, and 1.7 times as much as in Chorley.

The best annual growth in the region was in Liverpool, where property prices increased on average by 23.4%, to £156,000.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average January sale price of £1.3 million could buy 14 properties in Blaenau Gwent (average £93,000).