ESPC: Mortgage rate cuts fuel surge in property sales

Dean Village

The Borders saw its average rise 9.5 per cent to £229,480, while Edinburgh’s average jumped 5.8 per cent to £308,132.

In East Lothian, property prices rose by 5.9 per cent to £282,291, while in West Fife & Kinross, the average selling price leapt 6.4 per cent to £226,565.

Edinburgh city centre experienced an even greater swing, with average selling prices showing a year-on-year increase of 13 per cent, taking the new average to £349,483.

Dunfermline also experienced a large increase in its average selling prices, with prices rising 13.8 per cent to a new average of £223,724. One-bedroom flats in the city remained the most affordable properties on the market overall, selling for just under £100,000 with an average selling price of £99,383.

Properties attained on average 102.1 per cent of their Home Report valuation figure during August-October 2024, which is down 1.1 percentage points on the same time last year. This continues a trend seen throughout 2024 so far, as increasing volumes of properties on the market lower expectations on buyers to pay a premium to secure a property.

During this period 75.6 per cent of properties sold for at least their Home Report valuation, down from 78.7 per cent during the same time last year.

There was an 11.2 per cent annual increase in the volume of properties coming onto the market during this time, which coincides with this period marking two years since the Truss mini-Budget which affected the property market so severely; perhaps an influx of homeowners listing their properties at the first opportunity after having had to lock into a two-year fixed mortgage at a higher rate back in autumn 2022.

Indicating strong seller confidence in the market, 82.4 per cent of homeowners chose to list their properties for ‘offers over’, which is 9.8 percentage points higher than the levels seen in August-October 2023.

Sales volumes were also thriving, with levels up 19.1 per cent on the same time last year; this aligns with the first mortgage rate cut seen since autumn 2022 and indicates that prospective buyers or homeowners wanting to move up the ladder have decided to strike at the first opportunity and taken their chance to secure a new property as soon as the financial climate showed signs of improvement.

The median property selling time during August-October 2024 was 21 days, which is the same as last year.

Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, commented: “Two years on from the disastrous Truss mini-Budget that sent interest rates soaring, the figures that ESPC has recorded this month indicate a clear bounce-back for the Scottish property market over the late summer and into early autumn.

“Interestingly, as mortgage rates were finally reduced in August 2024, the figures for August-October show an increasingly positive report in terms of activity, with the levels of property listings and sales significantly up on the same time last year.

“This hints at strong confidence in the market and a great desire from both homeowners and buyers to move up or onto the property ladder now that the overall financial climate offers a better picture than we have seen so far this year, or indeed in the last couple of years.”