South Shields house prices dropped by £6,000 in 2017

The figures – compiled by South Tyneside sales and lettings firm KIS Group – show Darlington and Durham City to be 2017’s North East property hotspots, both boasting annual house price growth of 2%.

But North East house prices were down by 2% in 2017 - wiping more than £1200 from the value of the average property.

An average property in the region was valued at £167,571 at the end of December – compared to £168,811 at the same point in 2016, a fall of 1.97% and a drop of £1240 in cash terms.

Homes in South Shields have performed the weakest over the past year, dropping by 5% year-on-year – a fall of £6464 in cash terms.

Ajay Jagota, managing director of KIS Group, said: “House values in the North East have been generally resilient this year in the face of ongoing economic uncertainty which is likely to encourage people to think twice about moving house.

“The property market is clearly very strong in some areas and we can certainly enter 2018 in positive spirits.

“December is never a great month for house prices with people’s attention on Christmas and many people begin the search for a new property in the New Year.

“That doesn’t mean that the region wouldn’t benefit from measures to stimulate the property market, and reforming Britain’s outdated tenancy deposit system could be an incredibly cost effective way for the government to do it.”

He added: “Replacing deposits for renters with deposit replacement insurance would allow renters to put the £4.1bn currently held in tenancy deposits into government-backed Help to Buy ISAs, considerably cutting the amount of time it currently takes to save for a deposit for a home of their own.”