House prices still rising, but transactions in reverse on latest figures

House prices in Scotland are still rising, but the volume of transactions declined at a faster rate than in the rest of the UK, according to the latest monthly data for the UK House Price Index, provided by the UK's land registries. 

The average price of a property in Scotland in November 2018 was £150,638 – an increase of 2.9% per cent on November 2017, though a decrease of 0.7% when compared to the previous month. This compares to a UK average of £230,630, up 2.8% on the previous November and down 0.1% on October 2018.

Figures released for September 2018 showed the volume of residential sales in Scotland as 8,472, down 9.1% on September 2017 on a like-for-like comparison, compared with decreases of 7.9% in England and 7.7% in Wales. Northern Ireland showed an increase of 4.9% through quarter 3 of 2018.

Average price increases (year on year) in November were recorded in 27 Scotland's local authority areas, with the biggest rises occurring in Midlothian (11.9%), Highland (9.5%) and City of Edinburgh (9.3%) respectively. (Orkney and the Western Isles recorded larger percentage rises but on low numbers of sales.) The largest decrease was recorded in Aberdeen City, where average prices fell by 6.7%. In Aberdeenshire there was no change in the average.

So far only eight areas showed a rise in transactions over the previous September, though the calculations are said to be based on around 85% of the final registered transactions.

Registers of Scotland Operations Director and Accountable Officer Janet Egdell commented: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in November with an increase of 2.9% when compared to November 2017. While the average price has increased each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year, the trend in sales volume has not been as positive.

“The volume of residential sales in Scotland decreased in September, and has decreased in most months since November 2017, when compared with the same month of the previous year. This downward trend is also reflected in the cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date. From April 2018 to September 2018, the cumulative sales volume was 53,897. This is a decrease of 3.1% on the equivalent year to date position in the previous financial year 2017-18.”