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July UK House Price Index

Posted: 13th September 2017

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in July 2017 was £149,185 – an increase of 4.8 per cent on July in the previous year and an increase of 2.8 per cent when compared to the previous month.

This compares to a UK average of £226,185, which was an increase of 5.1 per cent compared to July in the previous year and an increase of 1.1 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in May 2017 was 8,241 – an increase of 13.7 per cent on May 2016 and an increase of 3.5 per cent on the previous month.
This compares with an annual decrease in sales volumes of 3.3 per cent in England and annual increases in sales volumes of 9.0 per cent in Wales and 5.0 per cent in Northern Ireland (Quarter 2 – 2017).

Registers of Scotland business development and information director Kenny Crawford said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in July with an increase of 4.8 per cent when compared to July 2016. This represents the biggest percentage increase year-on-year since March 2015.

“While average prices have been steadily increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year, sales volumes figures have been more changeable over the 12 months to May. May 2017 showed an increase in sales volumes in Scotland of 13.7% when compared with May 2016; however, volumes in May 2016 were lower than usual, a possible effect of the introduction of changes to the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax that came into effect on 1 April 2016.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were the City of Edinburgh (1,094 sales), Glasgow City (899 sales), Fife (565 sales), South Lanarkshire (506 sales) and North Lanarkshire (396 sales).

Average price increases were recorded in 30 out of 32 local authorities in July 2017, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increase was in the City of Edinburgh, where the average price increased by 9.6 per cent to £243,920. The biggest decrease was again in Aberdeen City, where prices fell by 7.7 per cent to £166,836.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in July 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 5.6 per cent to £255,993.

The average price in July 2017 for property purchased by a first time buyer was £120,630 – an increase of 4.1 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £178,766 – an increase of 5.5 per cent on the previous year.

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Business Comment is the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce’s bi-monthly magazine. It provides insight on Edinburgh’s vibrant business community, with features on the city’s key sectors, interviews with leading figures and news on new business developments in the capital.
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