February house prices up on 2016

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in February 2017 was £138,821 – an increase of 3.1 per cent on February in the previous year but a decrease of 0.6 per cent when compared to the previous month. This compares to a UK average of £217,502, which was an increase of 5.8 per cent compared to February in the previous year and an increase of 0.6 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in December 2016 was 8,361 – an increase of 6.5 per cent on December 2015 but a decrease of 2.7 per cent on last month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 19.0 per cent in England, 6.9 per cent in Wales and 17.6 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Registers of Scotland director of commercial services Kenny Crawford said: “Average prices continue to hold steady. February 2017 has continued the general upward trend seen in 2016, when every month – with the exception of March – showed an increase in average price when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Sales volumes figures for December 2016 showed an increase in Scotland of 6.5 per cent when compared with December 2015. This is up by 30.8 per cent when compared with December 2014, up by 17.2 per cent when compared with December 2013 and up by 44.3 per cent when compared with December 2012.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were City of Edinburgh (1,002 sales), Glasgow City (977 sales), Fife (570 sales), South Lanarkshire (479 sales) and North Lanarkshire (454 sales).

The biggest price increase when comparing February 2017 with February 2016 was in East Dunbartonshire where the average price increased by 9.4 per cent to £195,967. The biggest decrease was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 9.6 per cent to £161,199

Mr Crawford added: “Average prices in the City of Aberdeen have been showing year-on-year decreases for each month since June 2015. However in relation to volumes the City of Aberdeen had an increase in volume – of 4.2 per cent – when comparing December 2016 with December 2015.”

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in February 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year, with Flat or Maisonette properties showing the biggest increase of 4.8 per cent to £99,890.

The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £111,698 – an increase of 2.7 per cent on the previous year

The average price for a cash sale was £131,575 – an increase of six per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £143,544 – an increase of 2.9 per cent on the previous year.