Each year, the ONS publishes housing data on what it terms lower layer super output areas (LSOAs), which are small areas containing around 600 homes. It says there are currently almost 35,000 of these areas in England and Wales.
Its latest data revealed just 40.3 per cent of these small areas saw an increase in property transactions compared to the previous year.
Around 43.6 per cent of areas saw a fall in transactions, with the remaining 5.8 per cent seeing no change.
While housing transactions fell, the median price paid for residential properties rose in the year to the end of March 2019 in 58.3 per cent of LSOAs. Nonetheless this is down on the proportion of LSOAs that saw prices rise last year, when 64.3 per cent recorded price increases.
The ONS reported that the median price paid for homes in LSOAs ranged from just £25,000 (within both an LSOA in Sunderland and another in County Durham) to £5m in an area within Kensington and Chelsea.
This was the same price spread as the previous year.
However, it noted there were fewer small areas in which the median price paid was £1m or more, falling from 372 to 337. Of these, 276 small areas were located within London.
