Average house prices in Scotland continue to rise

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in November 2017 was £145,992 – an increase of 3.6% on November in the previous year and an increase of 1.1% when compared to the previous month.

This compares to a UK average of £226,071, which was an increase of 5.1% on November in the previous year and an increase of 0.1% when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in September 2017 was 9,323 – a decrease of 2.5% on September 2016 and a decrease of 0.5% on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 14.8% in England, 6.6% in Wales and 8.6% in Northern Ireland (Quarter 3 – 2017).

Registers of Scotland business development and information director, Kenny Crawford, said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in November with an increase of 3.6% when compared to November 2016. Average prices have been steadily increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Residential sales volumes decreased in September. The annual decrease of 2.5% when compared with September 2016 in Scotland is in the context of greater decreases across the rest of the UK. The cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date – from April to September 2017 – was 54,893. This is an increase of 9.1% on the equivalent year to date position for September 2016.”

The top five local authorities in terms of September sales volumes were Edinburgh (1,124 sales), Glasgow (1,067 sales), Fife (706 sales), South Lanarkshire (595 sales) and North Lanarkshire (451 sales).

Average price increases were recorded in three quarters (24) of all local authorities in November 2017, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increases were in West Dunbartonshire, East Lothian and the City of Edinburgh, where the average prices increased by 10.3% to £106,216, 8.1% to £217,106 and 8.0% to £246,508 respectively. The biggest decreases were recorded in Aberdeen City and Argyll and Bute where prices fell by 4.2% to £163,489 and 3.9% to £127,373 respectively.

Across Scotland, most property types showed an increase in average price in November 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Flat or maisonette properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 7.2% to £108,881. The average price of detached properties showed a decrease of 3.6% to £235,744.

The average price in November 2017 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £121,574 – an increase of 6.5% compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £169,670 – an increase of 0.7% on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £135,641 – an increase of four% on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,733 – an increase of 3.5% on the previous year.

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