Annual Scots house price growth tops 10% in March

The average price of a property in Scotland rose by more than 10% in the year to March 2021, according to the latest provisional statistics from the UK House Price Index released by Registers of Scotland. 

During the month houses changed hands for an average of £166,566, up 10.6% on March 2020 and 2.8% higher than the average for February this year.

The UK average price was £256,405, an increase of 10.2% on March 2020 and 1.8% on February 2021.

Year on year rises were recorded in 31 of the 32 local authority areas, with only Aberdeen City showing a slight decrease of 0.6%.The largest mainland increase (Orkney recorded a 25% jump) was in South Ayrshire (16.0%), followed by Inverclyde (13.9%), Argyll & Bute (13.6%) and Moray (13.0%). 

Latest provisional volume figures show an increase in January 2021 of 10.2% to 7,562 sales, compared with the original provisional estimate for January 2020. This compares with increases of 5.7% in England, 11.0% in Wales, and 41.8% in Northern Ireland for quarter 1 of 2021 compared with the same quarter in 2020).

Registers of Scotland business development director Janet Egdell commented: "Over the year as a whole from April 2020 to end January 2021, volumes have picked up and cumulatively are now around 86% of levels in the previous year.

"Average house prices have remained strong over the last year, April 2020 to March 2021. In terms of property types Flats have seen the lowest annual percentage increases at 7.6%, and terraced houses the biggest increase, rising by 13.3%."