HOUSE prices increased by 4.8% in Bromsgrove in October, new figures show.

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 13.1% annual growth.

The average Bromsgrove house price in October was £345,272, Land Registry figures show – a 4.8% increase on September.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across West Midlands, where prices decreased 3.3%, and Bromsgrove outperformed the 1.1% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Bromsgrove rose by £40,000 – putting the area eighth among West Midlands’s 30 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Malvern Hills, where property prices increased on average by 19.9%, to £328,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Worcester gained just 1.9% in value, giving an average price of £231,000.