Scottish house prices rising faster than rest of the UK - RoS

The latest figures from the Register of Scotland’s monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) show Scottish property prices outstripping those in the rest of the UK.

The rise north of the border compares to a UK average of £220,094, which represents an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to April in the previous year and an increase of 1.6 per cent when compared to the previous month.

Registers of Scotland corporate director John King said: “This release marks the one-year anniversary of the first publication of the UK HPI. During this time, the HPI has been well received and we have been liaising with users around its ongoing development. Feedback has already resulted in a number of enhancements, details of which are outlined in the anniversary news release, published on behalf of the HPI working group by our partner HM Land Registry.

“Average prices this April showed the highest year-on-year increase since March 2015, when the average price increased by 10.4 per cent compared to the year before, and there have been increases in every month since March 2016 when compared with the same month of the previous year.”

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in February 2017 was 5,662 – an increase of 2.8 per cent on February 2016 but a decrease of 10.2 per cent on the previous month.

This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 18.2 per cent in England, 8.8 per cent in Wales and 28.5 per cent in Northern Ireland. This is the third consecutive month in which Scotland volumes figures, when compared with the same month of the previous year, have shown an increase while volumes in the rest of the UK have decreased.

Mr King added: “Sales volumes figures for February 2017 showed an increase in Scotland of 2.8% when compared with February 2016. This is also up by 10.7 per cent when compared with February 2015 and up by 32.1 per cent when compared with February 2013, but down by 1.3 per cent when compared with February 2014.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were Glasgow City (722 sales), the City of Edinburgh (562 sales), Fife (356 sales), North Lanarkshire (351 sales) and South Lanarkshire (313 sales).

The biggest price increase when comparing April 2017 with April 2016 was in East Dunbartonshire where the average price increased by 11.2 per cent to £202,466. The biggest decrease was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 4.3 per cent to £167,630.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in April 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 8.0 per cent to £252,492.

The average price in April 2017 for property purchased by a first time buyer was £117,556 – an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £174,848 – an increase of 7.5 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £138,425 – an increase of 10.6 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,688 – an increase of 6.4 per cent on the previous year.