Scottish House Prices Rise at Faster Rate than UK Average

Average house prices in Scotland are increasing at a higher rate than the UK average, according to the latest UK House Price Index (UK HPI).

Average Prices Rises

The figures show that the average price of a residential property in Scotland reached £145,734 in April this year, which is an increase of 6.8% on April last year and an increase of 5.4% when compared to the previous month.

Across the whole of the UK, the average house price was £220,094, which represents an increase of 5.6% compared to April in the previous year and an increase of 1.6% when compared to the previous month.

On an individual country level, the Index shows that:

• In England, annual house prices rose by 5.7%, which takes the average property value to £236,519. Monthly house prices have risen by 1.3% since March 2017
• In Wales, annual house prices increased by 4.2%, which takes the average property value to £147,921. Monthly house prices have risen by 0.9% since March 2017

“Average prices this April showed the highest year-on-year increase since March 2015, when the average price increased by 10.4% compared to the year before, and there have been increases in every month since March 2016 when compared with the same month of the previous year,” commented Registers of Scotland corporate director John King.

Sales Volumes

The number of residential sales in Scotland during February 2017 amounted to 5,662, which is up 2.8% compared to February 2016 but down 10.2% on the previous month.

In comparison, there were annual decreases in sales volumes of 18.2% in England, 8.8% in Wales and 28.5% in Northern Ireland. According to the Registers of Scotland, this is the third consecutive month in which Scotland’s volumes figures, when compared with the same month of the previous year, have shown an increase while volumes in the rest of the UK have decreased.

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were Glasgow City (722 sales), the City of Edinburgh (562 sales), Fife (356 sales), North Lanarkshire (351 sales) and South Lanarkshire (313 sales).

The City of Aberdeen once against saw the biggest annual fall in average house prices, with a drop of 4.3% to £167,630. The biggest price increase when comparing April 2017 with April 2016 took place in East Dunbartonshire, where the average price increased by 11.2% per cent to £202,466.

Additional Statistics

Other key Scottish statistics revealed by the Index include:

• Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in April 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 8.0% to £252,492.
• The average price in April 2017 for property purchased by a first time buyer was £117,556 – an increase of 5.9% compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £174,848, which equates to an increase of 7.5% on the previous year.
• The average price for a cash sale was £138,425 – an increase of 10.6% on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,688 – an increase of 6.4% on the previous year.

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