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Monthly House Price Index statistics for January 2018 published

Posted: 20th March 2018

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in January 2018 was £148,512 – an increase of 7.3 per cent on January in the previous year and an increase of 1.4 per cent when compared to the previous month.

This compares to a UK average of £225,621, which was an increase of 4.9 per cent on January in the previous year and a decrease of 0.3 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in November 2017 was 8,572 – a decrease of 1.9 per cent on November 2016 and a decrease of 4.1 per cent on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 13.0 per cent in England and 5.2 per cent in Wales in November 2017, and 8.8 per cent in Northern Ireland Quarter 4 – 2017.

Registers of Scotland Operations Director and Accountable Officer Janet Egdell said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in January with an increase of 7.3 per cent when compared to January 2017. Average prices have been steadily increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Residential sales volumes decreased in November. The annual decrease of 1.9 per cent when compared with November 2016 in Scotland is in the context of larger decreases across the rest of the UK. The cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date – from April to November 2017 – was 72,842. This is an increase of 7.9 per cent on the equivalent year to date position for November 2016.”

Average price increases were recorded in the vast majority (28) of local authorities in January 2018, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increases were in East Lothian and West Lothian, where average prices increased by 13.9 per cent to £219,393 and 13.3 per cent to £156,149 respectively. The biggest decrease was recorded in Stirling where prices fell by 0.6 per cent to £174,982.

Increases in sales volumes were recorded in less than half (13) of local authorities in November 2017, when comparing volumes with the previous year. The biggest increases were in West Dunbartonshire (up 27.8 per cent to 161 sales), East Ayrshire (up 22.2 per cent to 193 sales) and Moray (20.5 per cent to 147 sales). Local authorities with large decreases in sales volumes included Inverclyde, Falkirk, Angus and Renfrewshire.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in January 2018 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 8.6 per cent to £261,291. The average price of flatted properties showed an increase of 5.6 per cent to £105,590, the smallest increase of all property types.

The average price in January 2018 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £119,174 – an increase of 6.5 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £179,391 – an increase of 8.3 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £136,482 – an increase of 6.6 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £154,125 – an increase of 7.7 per cent on the previous year.

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