House prices rising – official

House price figures from RoS are now classified as official statistics and the information provided is drawn from all residential sales, including sales that do not involve a mortgage.

Summary of key points

The figures for the final quarter of 2009 (October to December) show an increase of 1.3% on the average price of a residential property in Scotland compared to the same period in 2008.

The average property price in Scotland has risen to £155,618, which is the first annual increase since the period July to September 2008. The average property price increased over the year in 17 of the 32 local authority areas.

East Lothian local authority area recorded the highest rise in average residential house prices, with an increase of 10.4% to £209,350 compared to the same quarter in 2008.

Edinburgh recorded the highest average price of £209,456, an increase of 4.3% year-on-year.

East Dunbartonshire showed the largest rise in the number of sales with an increase of 43.6%; however the area also recorded the highest year-on-year average price decrease, at 11.8% with an average residential property price of £196,280.

Sales

The total value of sales registered during this latest quarter was just over £3.34 billion, an increase of 13.2% over the same quarter last year.

The City of Edinburgh is the largest market with sales of just over £444 million for the quarter, an increase of 13.2% over the same quarter in 2008.

The number of sales transactions registered across Scotland from October to December 2009, increased by 11.7% over the same quarter in 2008, with 21,498 sales registered compared to 19,240 in the previous year. This is an increase of 7% over the previous quarter (July to September) of 2009.

House types

Across Scotland, flats showed the largest average property price increase at 4.9%, while detached properties showed the largest decrease of 1% when compared with the same period in 2008.

Sales of semi-detached properties recorded the largest increase in volume with a rise of 15.3%. Flat sales showed the smallest increase at 3.3%.

Further information

To view the statistical news release and full report, which provides the local picture across Scotland, visit the RoS website, www.ros.gov.uk/public/news/quarterly_statistics.html. Tables showing the average house price, number of sales and value of sales by local authority area during the quarter (October to December) compared to the previous quarter (July to September) in 2009 and the same quarter in 2008, are also available via this link.

Property data published month by month (volume, average, value of sales by local authority area) are also available at: www.ros.gov.uk/productsandservices/lpd_stats.html.