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Official house price data for December has failed to alleviate concerns about the market slowdown, with prices now falling month-on-month across the UK – although they are still rising on an annual basis.

It follows a disastrous mini-budget under the short-lived premiership of Liz Truss who, alongside her Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, sent mortgage interest rates spiralling after the prospect of massive tax cuts spooked financial markets.

But what do the official figures say about property prices in Mansfield? Are they rising, or is our area one of the dozens across the UK where prices started to tumble last month?

The Office for National Statistics and HM Land Registry published the latest official house price data this week, known as the UK House Price Index.

This showed average house prices in Mansfield stood at £187,117 in December – 1.9 per cent lower than in November, when prices were at £188,362, but 15.5 per cent higher than in December last year, when the average was £161,950.

The UK House Price Index is based on property sales rather than asking prices or mortgage data, and is therefore considered the most reliable barometer of UK house sale activity.

Across the UK, house prices have risen by 9.8 per cent in the last year, from £268,115 to £294,329.

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The Bank of England is warning that the supply of homes for sale is increasing faster than demand, and that higher borrowing costs and concerns about affordability are “weighing significantly” on first-time buyers.

As a result, the majority of offers put in by potential buyers are now below the asking price, and the number of house viewings taking place has fallen sharply, according to insight from the Bank’s contacts in the housing market.

HM Land Registry says the housing market will “remain on a downward trajectory over the coming months”, with monthly data from the Bank of England showing fewer mortgages were approved in December – the fourth consecutive monthly decrease.

If the Covid pandemic period is excluded, the number of new mortgages approved are at their lowest level since January 2000, it said.