Average price of a Scottish home rises than 6 per cent in a year

Scotland’s average price compares to a UK average of £225,047, which was an increase of 4.4 per cent on February in the previous year and a decrease of 0.1 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in December 2017 was 8,052 – a decrease of 5.1 per cent on December 2016 and a decrease of 6.6 per cent on the previous month.

This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 21.2 per cent in England and 14.3 per cent in Wales in December 2017, and 8.8 per cent in Northern Ireland Quarter 4 - 2017.

Registers of Scotland registration and transformation director, Charles Keegan, said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in February with an increase of 6.2 per cent when compared to February 2017. Average prices have been increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Residential sales volumes decreased in December. The annual decrease of 5.1 per cent when compared with December 2016 in Scotland is in the context of larger decreases across the rest of the UK. The cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date – from April to December 2017 – was 72,997. This is an increase of 8.1 per cent on the equivalent year to date position for December 2016.”

Average price increases were recorded in the vast majority (28) of local authorities in January 2018, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increases were in Argyll and Bute, City of Edinburgh and West Lothian, where average prices increased by 13.3 per cent to £144,404, 11.2 per cent to £250,986 and 11.2 per cent to £153,230 respectively. Decreases were recorded in Aberdeen City and Stirling where prices fell by 1.5 per cent to £159,653 and 0.5 per cent to £174,076 respectively.

Increases in sales volumes were recorded in less than one third (10) of local authorities in December 2017, when comparing volumes with the previous year. The biggest increases were in Angus and Stirling, where volumes increased by 38.6 per cent to 183 sales and 16.3 per cent to 150 sales respectively. The biggest decreases were in Inverclyde, Falkirk and Renfrewshire, where volumes fell by 22.3 per cent to 94 sales, 19.4 per cent to 241 sales and 18.4 per cent to 307 sales respectively.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in February 2018 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Terraced properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 7.1 per cent to £119,109. The average price of semi-detached properties showed an increase of 5.4 per cent to £148,670, the smallest increase of all property types.

The average price in February 2018 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £116,406 – an increase of 6.2 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £173,513 – an increase of 6.1 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £132,790 – an increase of 5.9 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £149,774 – an increase of 6.3 per cent on the previous year.