A LOCAL estate agents has said they have seen a boost in sales, after new figures revealed that house prices in Barrow saw a significant increase during the month of June.

David Corrie of Corrie and Co estate agents reacted to the Land Registry figures, which showed that the average Barrow house price in June was £120,568, which was just over a three per cent increase on May.

"We've seen since the beginning of the virus an increase in demand for family properties with gardens of between five and ten per cent," he said.

"That's been driven by more people looking for houses than this time last year and there's about 30 per cent less houses on the market because people couldn't put their houses on the market in March, April, May and most of June."

However according to the Land Registry figures, this recent boost does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area suffer an annual decline of almost one and a half per cent.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Barrow remained level – putting the area 33rd among the North West’s 39 local authorities for annual growth.

Mr Corrie said more people were currently buying locally for a number of reasons.

"You've got cheap mortgages," he said.

"A mortgage rate of one point five per cent over five years is historically low, so it's very attractive.

"We've got stamp duty holidays which has encouraged people to buy in the upper markets because it's a huge saving.

"There are some folks who say the market is going to dip, but we have excellent employment levels because of BAE and Sellafield.

"So we have a very strong market at the moment."

The best annual growth in the North West region was in Fylde, where properties increased on average by almost eight and a half per cent, to £202,000. At the other end of the scale, properties in South Lakeland dropped by almost six per cent in value, giving an average price of £227,000.

Owners of semi-detached houses saw the biggest improvement in property prices in Barrow in June – they increased by three and a half per cent to £146,990 on average– but over the last year, prices dropped by just over one per cent.

According to the figures first-time buyers in Barrow spent an average of £107,800 on their property – £1,600 less than a year ago.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £134,600 on average in June – 24.9 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 29.5 per cent less than the average price in the North West (£171,000) in June for a property in Barrow.

Mr Corrie said that more people are enquiring about more spacious houses.

"People want more space," he said. "Gardens, patios, driveways."