The average house price in Wales rose 12.5% annually in the second quarter of 2021, shows a new report from Principality Building Society.

This leaves houses an average of £215,810 each following a quarterly rise of 1.4%.

The report adds that all 22 local authorities in Wales rose annually, with new hights hit in eight of them, specifically:

• Conwy
• Merthyr Tydfil
• Neath Port Talbot
• Rhondda
• Vale of Glamorgan
• Torfaen, Bridgend
• Blaenau Gwent

The biggest annual change took place in Carmarthenshire, where house prices rose 19.9%, followed closely by Conwy, which saw a 19.7% increase.

The small rise was in Newport, at 2.5% and Swansea, at 7.5%.

As well as this, transactions increased by 13% from the first quarter of this year to the second.

Principality Building Society chief financial officer Tom Denman says: “The scale and strength of the housing market in Wales to date does suggest that this momentum will continue into the final quarters of the year.

“Clearly, the stimulus effect of the land transaction tax holiday will have disappeared by then, and because some purchases were brought forward to capture that benefit, there will be an inevitable dip in activity.

“Alongside this, the furlough scheme ends in September, thus further revealing the underlying state of the economy and employment.

“Various forecasts suggest that Wales – along with other parts of the UK – will see house price inflation down to just under 5% in 2022 and onwards.

“Much will depend on the course of interest rates and the economy, but the mortgage market remains very competitive with rates having fallen in recent months after slightly increasing at the height of the pandemic.”