Aberdeen house prices remained static in third quarter of 2018

Aberdeen Solicitors’ Property Centre Limited, in cooperation with the University of Aberdeen’s Centre for Real Estate Research, has published statistics for the third quarter of 2018 relating to the Aberdeen housing market.

The report also found that the annual house price change in Aberdeen city and its suburbs is -3.9 per cent while the annualised house price change over five years is minus two per cent.

John MacRae, chairman of the board of directors of ASPC, said: “The figures released by the Centre for Real Estate Research at the University of Aberdeen, based on data supplied by ASPC, demonstrate that the local area housing market, while still in some difficulty, is beginning to show signs of recovering a significant degree of stability in that the numbers of sales is slightly up and the rate of downward movement in prices is slowing down, if not levelling out.

“The third quarter is the second consecutive quarter this year demonstrating that the quarterly house price change in Aberdeen city and suburbs has been zero and the annual house price change this quarter is less of a negative figure than the change in the second quarter (-3.9 per cent compared to -6.5 per cent).”

He added: “It is very encouraging to see that, after a very difficult start to the year – caused probably by the beast from the east – the remainder of the year has been fairly consistent in showing some degree of stability.

“In addition to prices stabilising, we are seeing slightly better numbers of sales going through and I am hoping that, despite the usual and expected fourth quarter slight downturn, 2019 will continue to show better stability in our market.

“It needs to be borne in mind that while the oil price has stabilised and increased, the general economic situation, particularly the Brexit background, may be having a detrimental effect on confidence and on people’s plans for the future so it is really quite encouraging to see the results so far for this year.”

Jamie Robertson, senior solicitor at Blackadders said the figures were encouraging when taken “in context with the looming spectre of Brexit” and that they give “cautious optimism to the North-East as a whole that there is a level of positivity and consistency returning to the oil and gas sector, which in turn, fuels the local housing market improvement”.