The latest UK House Price Index (UK HPI) found that the average price for September 2016 was £143,006 in Scotland.

This compares to a UK average of £217,888, which was an increase of 7.7 per cent over the year and an increase of 0.2 per cent when compared to the previous month.

Registers of Scotland director of commercial services, Kenny Crawford, said: “The percentage increases in average house prices in Scotland, while below the UK average, have been showing steady growth, with month-on-month increases in every month this year apart from February.

“Average prices have been steadily increasing on a year-on-year basis, too, with only one drop in average price being recorded in the last three years. This was in March of this year.

“The volume of residential sales in Scotland in July 2016 was 9,108 – a decrease of 9.1 per cent on the previous year, but up 5.7 per cent on last month and also 11.8 per cent higher than July 2014 and 19.6 per cent higher than July 2013.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were the City of Edinburgh (1,169 sales), Glasgow City (992 sales), Fife (606 sales), South Lanarkshire (574 sales) and Highland (446 sales).

The biggest price increase over the last year was in East Renfrewshire where the average price increased by 15.7 per cent to £222,034. The biggest decrease was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 10.3 per cent to £171,955.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price when compared with the previous year, with detached properties showing the biggest increase of 4.4 per cent to £249,247.

The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £171,454 – an increase of 3.7 per cent on the previous year. The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £115,552 – an increase of 3.1 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £132,032 – an increase of 3.5 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £148,075 – an increase of 3.4 per cent on the previous year.