House prices dropped slightly, by 0.6%, in Shropshire in April, new figures show.

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area grow by 10.7% over the last year.

An imbalance between supply and demand for properties has remained the primary reason behind climbing house prices across the UK throughout the pandemic.

The need for larger deposits and constraints on accessing mortgages have pushed homeownership further out of reach for many first-time buyers – despite Government figures showing 50% of renters would be able to afford the monthly payments.

In a recent major speech in Blackpool, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a “comprehensive review” of the mortgage market would take place in a bid to help more people onto the property ladder.

The average Shropshire house price in April was £264,949, Land Registry figures show – a 0.6% decrease on March.

Over the month, the picture was different to that across West Midlands, where prices increased 0.5%, and Shropshire was lower than the 1.1% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Shropshire rose by £26,000 – putting the area 21st among West Midlands’s 30 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

The highest annual growth in the region was in Herefordshire, where property prices increased on average by 18.3%, to £304,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in Staffordshire Moorlands gained just 5.5% in value, giving an average price of £217,000.