Here's how much first time buyers are spending to buy a home in Scarborough

The boost contributes to the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 9.3 per cent annual growth.

The average Scarborough house price in January was £185,022, Land Registry figures show – a 4.1 per cent increase on December.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across Yorkshire and The Humber, where prices decreased 1.4 per cent, and Scarborough outperformed the 0.5 per cent drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Scarborough rose by £16,000 – putting the area 14th among Yorkshire and The Humber’s 24 local authorities for annual growth.

The best annual growth in the region was in Ryedale, where property prices increased on average by 24 per cent, to £290,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Barnsley gained 2.8 per cent in value, giving an average price of £130,000.

'Winners and Losers'

Owners of semi-detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Scarborough in January – they increased 4.5 per cent, to £195,021 on average. Over the last year, prices rose by 10.1 per cent.

Among other types of property:

- Detached: up 4.1 per cent monthly; up 11 per cent annually; £289,322 average

- Terraced: up 4.2 per cent monthly; up 9.9 per cent annually; £157,975 average

- Flats: up 3.4 per cent monthly; up 5.6 per cent annually; £122,519 average

'First steps on the property ladder'

First-time buyers in Scarborough spent an average of £158,000 on their property – £13,000 more than a year ago, and £30,000 more than in December 2015.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £205,000 on average in January – 29.3 per cent more than first-time buyers.

'How do property prices in Scarborough compare?'

Buyers paid 3.2 per cent more than the average price in Yorkshire and The Humber (£179,000) in January for a property in Scarborough. Across Yorkshire and The Humber, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £249,000.

The most expensive properties in Yorkshire and The Humber were in Harrogate – £306,000 on average, and 1.7 times as much as in Scarborough. Harrogate properties cost 2.6 times as much as homes in Hull (£119,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

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).

Fact file

Average property price in January

- Scarborough: £185,022

- Yorkshire and The Humber: £179,248

- UK: £249,309

Annual growth to January

- Scarborough: +9.3 per cent

- Yorkshire and The Humber: +8.9 per cent

- UK: +7.5 per cent

Best and worst annual growth in Yorkshire and The Humber

- Ryedale: +24.0 per cent

- Barnsley: +2.8 per cent