Property prices in Westminster near Big Ben fall almost half million dollars

London's exclusive Westminster area has retained its crown as having the most expensive average house prices in Britain.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) show that snapping up property within earshot of the world famous Big Ben clock is on average almost half a million U.S. dollars cheaper than a year ago.

ONS says the median price of a Westminster home this year has fallen to below 3 million pounds, now standing at 2.95 million pounds or 3.75 million dollars. But the average prices a year earlier were around 4.22 million dollars.

ONS said across England and Wales, stand-alone detached houses were the only property type where the average price paid in 2016 for new properties was lower than the cost of buying an existing properties.

But the median price paid for newly built apartments in England and Wales was 40 percent higher than the average cost of buying an existing apartments.

ONS said Britain's housing market activity has remained relatively subdued since an increase in the cost of government Stamp Duty for second homes. It had led to the total number of property sales in July 2016 now 7.4 percent below a historic 5-year average. Endit