A substantial number of new homes were registered in England and Wales at the end of last year, up 22.4% compared to December 2016, official figures show.

Overall there were 76,327 property sales received by the Land Register of which 9,854 were newly built. There were also 51,161 freehold sales, a fall of 13.6% year on year.

The most popular type of home is a terraced property with 19,809 registrations but this was down from 27,890 the previous month. The next most popular are semi-detached homes with 19,216 registrations, down from 27,093 in November 2017.

The most expensive sale in December 2017 was of a terraced property in the City of Westminster for just over £10 million while the cheapest was a terraced property in Llanelli, Wales, for £15,000.