House prices in Portsmouth, Gosport, Fareham and Havant all dropped in February

The average Portsmouth house price in February was £258,439

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 8% annual growth.

The average Portsmouth house price in February was £258,439, Land Registry figures show – a 0.3% decrease on the previous month.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across the South East, where prices decreased 1.2%, and Portsmouth outperformed the 1% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Portsmouth rose by £19,000 – putting the area 26th among the South East’s 64 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The average Gosport house price in February was £259,083 – a 2% decrease on the previous month. The average Fareham house price was £365,246 (a 0.4% decrease) and the average price in Havant was £334,118 (a 1.3% decrease).

The best annual growth in the region was in Maidstone, Kent, where property prices increased on average by 12.1%, to £367,000.

Properties in Oxford, though, gained just 0.4% in value, giving an average price of £460,000.

Owners of terraced houses fared worst in Portsmouth in February – they dropped 0.5% in price, to £280,498 on average. But over the last year, prices rose by 8.7%.

Among other types of property: Detached: up 0.4% monthly; up 8.2% annually; £537,607 average; Semi-detached: down 0.1% monthly; up 8.7% annually; £364,092 average; Flats: up 0% monthly; up 5.6% annually; £178,286 average.

First-time buyers in Portsmouth spent an average of £237,000 on their property – £17,000 more than a year ago, and £44,000 more than in February 2018.

Buyers paid 34.7% less than the average price in the South East (£396,000) in February for a property in Portsmouth.

The most expensive properties in the South East were in Elmbridge, Surrey – £721,000 on average, and 2.8 times as much as more than in Portsmouth. Elmbridge properties cost 2.8 times as much as homes in Southampton (£255,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

Average property price in February: Portsmouth: £258,439; The South East: £395,571; UK: £287,506.