House prices in Scotland show '˜steady growth' with 3.5% rise

Scottish house prices are continuing their 'steady growth', according to new figures.

House prices across Scotland are growing by 3.5%, according to the latest data. Picture: Stephen Mansfield

The average price of a property in Scotland in December 2016 was £141,553 - an increase of 3.5% on the previous year.

However, according to the UK House Price Index, this is below the UK average of £219,544, which was an increase of 7.2% over the year.

There was also a drop in the volume of residential sales in Scotland in October 2016, when the figure was 8,329 sales - down 14.7% on the previous year.

This compares with an annual decrease in sales volumes of 34.5% in England, 25.9% in Wales and 17.6% in Northern Ireland.

Kenny Crawford, Registers of Scotland director of commercial services, 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% 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% 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), City of Edinburgh (891), Fife (588), South Lanarkshire (556) and North Lanarkshire (471).

The biggest price increase over the last year on the Scottish mainland was in East Renfrewshire, where the average price rose by 15.4% to £220,072 in December.

Aberdeen saw the biggest decrease, with prices falling by 9.8% 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 rise of 5.9% to £149,791.

The average price for a property purchased by a former owner-occupier was £169,287 - an increase of 3.3% on the previous year.

For a property purchased by a first-time buyer, the average cost was £114,716 - up 3.8% on the previous year.

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

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