Compared with the previous month, house prices in Scotland decreased by 0.6% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis, whilst on a seasonally adjusted basis there was an increase of 1.1%.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in December 2023 was 7,148. When compared with the first published figures for December 2022 this was an annual decrease of 7.6%.

Average prices for local authorities are based on a three-month moving average to help remove some of the volatility in the series. Increases were recorded in 27 out of 32 local authority areas, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in Inverclyde where the average price increased by 13.8% to £127,000. The largest decrease was recorded in Argyll and Bute, where the average price decreased by 1.9% to £186,000.

In February 2024, the highest-priced area to purchase a property was the City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £325,000. In contrast, the lowest-priced area to purchase a property was Inverclyde, where the average price was £127,000.

The UK average house price was £281,000 which was an annual decrease of 0.2% on February 2023. Compared with the previous month, UK house prices increased by 0.4% on a non-seasonally adjusted basis and increased by 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted basis.

Commenting on the house price figures in Scotland, a Registers of Scotland spokesperson said: “There was an increase of 5.6% (to £188,000) in the average house price for Scotland in the 12 months to February 2024. This compares to a decrease of 0.2% (to £281,000) in average house prices for the UK as a whole.”