House price index shows 3.5 per cent annual increase in average prices in Scotland

The latest publication of the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in December 2016 was £141,553 – an increase of 3.5 per cent on the previous year and a decrease of 0.2 per cent when compared to the previous month. This compares to a UK average of £219,544, which was an increase of 7.2 per cent over the year and an increase of 1.4 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in October 2016 was 8,329 – a decrease of 14.7 per cent on the previous year and down 10.9 per cent on last month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 34.5 per cent in England, 25.9 per cent in Wales and 17.6 per cent in Northern Ireland.

Registers of Scotland director of commercial services Kenny Crawford said: “Sales volumes figures for September 2016 showed the first year-on-year increase in Scotland since March 2016. However, this growth has not continued into October and volumes have decreased by 14.7 per cent when compared with last year.

“On the other hand, average prices continue their steady growth year-on-year. With the exception of March, every month of 2016 showed an increase in average price when compared with the previous year. There was a decrease of 2.5 per cent in March 2016, but this followed on from a particularly high price increase in March 2015. In addition, there were no average price decreases year-on-year throughout 2014 and 2015, with the last decrease being recorded in June 2013.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were Glasgow City (973 sales), City of Edinburgh (891 sales), Fife (588 sales), South Lanarkshire (556 sales) and North Lanarkshire (471 sales).

The biggest price increase over the last year was in East Renfrewshire where the average price increased by 15.4 per cent to £220,072. The biggest decreases was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 9.8 per cent to £167,608.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price when compared with the previous year, with semi-detached properties showing the biggest increase of 5.9 per cent to £149,791.

The average price for a property purchased by a former owner-occupier was £169,287 – an increase of 3.3 per cent on the previous year. The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £114,716 – an increase of 3.8 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £130,211 – an increase of 3.7 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £146,805 – an increase of 3.5 per cent on the previous year.