Average house price in Scotland up 7.3 per cent on last January

his compares to a UK average of £225,621, which was an increase of 4.9 per cent on January in the previous year and a decrease of 0.3 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in November 2017 was 8,572 – a decrease of 1.9 per cent on November 2016 and a decrease of 4.1 per cent on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 13.0 per cent in England and 5.2 per cent in Wales in November 2017, and 8.8 per cent in Northern Ireland Quarter 4 - 2017.

Registers of Scotland operations director and accountable officer Janet Egdell said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in January with an increase of 7.3 per cent when compared to January 2017. 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 November. The annual decrease of 1.9 per cent when compared with November 2016 in Scotland is in the context of larger decreases across the rest of the UK. The cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date – from April to November 2017 – was 72,842. This is an increase of 7.9 per cent on the equivalent year to date position for November 2016.”

The average price in January 2018 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £119,174 – an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £179,391 – an increase of 8.3 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £136,482 – an increase of 6.6 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £154,125 – an increase of 7.7 per cent on the previous year.