HOUSE prices increased by 2.3% in Wyre Forest in June, new figures show.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 11.6% annual growth.

The average Wyre Forest house price in June was £218,111, Land Registry figures show – a 2.3% increase on May.

Over the month, the picture was less good than that across the West Midlands, where prices increased 5.7%, and Wyre Forest underperformed compared to the 4.5% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Wyre Forest rose by £23,000 – putting the area 18th among the West Midlands’s 34 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Shropshire, where property prices increased on average by 20.9%, to £256,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Warwick gained 3.1% in value, giving an average price of £325,000.

Buyers paid 5.8% less than the average price in the West Midlands (£231,000) in June for a property in Wyre Forest. Across the West Midlands, property prices are lower than those across the UK, where the average cost £266,000.

The most expensive properties in the West Midlands were in Stratford-on-Avon – £342,000 on average, and 1.6 times as much as in Wyre Forest. Stratford-on-Avon properties cost 2.7 times as much as homes in Stoke (£126,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average June sale price of £1.2 million could buy 13 properties in Burnley (average £99,000).