Over the month, the picture was worse than that across the South West, where prices decreased 0.6 per cent, and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole underperformed compared with the 0.9 per cent rise for the UK as a whole. Over the past year, the average sale price of property in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole rose by £21,000 – putting the area 22nd among the South West’s 32 local authorities for annual growth. The best annual growth in the region was in West Devon, where property prices increased on average by 25.1 per cent, to £306,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Stroud lost 4.2 per cent of their value, giving an average price of £278,000.