House prices increase at fastest rate in almost 14 years
House prices in Scotland increased by 12% in the last year to take the average house price in Scotland up to £173,961, the House Price Index for June 2021 by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
The annual increase is the sharpest rise since November 2007, in the midst of the credit crunch.
Compared with the previous month, house prices in Scotland increased by 2.4% between May 2021 and June 2021.
The UK average house price was £265,688 which was an increase of 13.2% on June 2020 and an increase of 4.5% on the previous month.
The volume of residential sales in Scotland in April 2021 was 7,007, an increase of 199.4% on the original provisional estimate for April 2020. This compares with increases of 111.8% in England, 85.2% in Wales, and 41.8% in Northern Ireland (Quarter 1 – 2021 compared with the same quarter in the previous year).
The volume of sales in April 2020 (both original provisional estimates and the final revised volume figures) is the lowest number of residential sales transactions recorded in this time series, this us due to the introduction of measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus from mid-March 2020 onwards, in which non-essential construction activity stopped, and home buyers were advised to delay moving to a new home where possible, until the lockdown restrictions began to ease towards the end of June 2020.
Accountable officer Janet Egdell from Registers of Scotland said: “Prices continue their trend upwards in June, and the number of transactions has reverted to a more normal pattern in the first couple of months of this financial year. Over the year as a whole from May 2020 to end of April 2021, volumes have picked up and cumulatively are now 4% higher than the previous year.”
In Scotland, Detached properties showed the largest increase in average house price, rising by 14.2% in the year to June 2021 to £307,453, although this figure may have been affected by the low numbers of transactions recorded in June 2020. Flatted properties showed the smallest increase, rising by 9.0% in the year to June 2021 to £120,893.
Average price increases were recorded in 31 out of 32 local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in East Renfrewshire where the average price increased by 22.0% to £254,771. The smallest increase was recorded in Angus, where the average price increased by 1.8% to £150,819.
The only decrease was recorded in Na h-Eileanan Siar, where the average price decreased by 5.5% to £123,572.
In June 2021, the highest-priced area to purchase a property was the City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £302,936. In contrast, the lowest-priced area to purchase a property was East Ayrshire, where the average price was £103,630.