The UK’s housing market shed a billion pounds of its value in 2017 and flats fell out of favour among buyers, official figures have shown.

For the first time since 2011 the total value of the UK’s housing market dropped. In the year to December 2017 the market lost £1.2bn in value, falling to a total of £259bn.

The number of transactions dropped by 3.8pc in England and Wales in 2017 to 884,329. This was the lowest level since 2013, which saw 790,585.

Every type of property recorded a fall in the number of sales, apart from semi-detached houses. Transactions rose very slightly for this property type, by around 5,000.

By contrast, transactions for flats and maisonettes dropped by 12.7pc, or close to 20,000.

The postcode-level analysis from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) also showed the gulf between the prices paid for homes in different areas.

Barnet has had the highest median house price for 10 of the last 22 years. The area had a median house price of £7,775,000 compared to that of County Durham and Sunderland of just £24,000.