With Friday 13th October looming, analysts at Registers of Scotland (RoS) took a peek at our records to see whether this noteworthy date affects people’s property buying habits.

It seems that there may be a degree of superstition when it comes to moving house on Friday 13th.

Figures show that, on the last Friday the 13th (in January 2017), 524 properties changed hands, but that on the equivalent Friday on 2016 (15th) more than twice as many (1,321) residential properties changed hands.

The last Friday the 13th before that was May 2016. Only 530 residential properties changed hands compared with 1,076 on the equivalent Friday 2017 (12 May 2016). On the Friday before (6 May 2016) 972 properties changed hands, with 1,110 house moves taking place on Friday, 20 May 2016.

Commenting on the data, RoS’ Operations Director and Accountable Officer, Janet Egdell, said:

“We can’t definitively say that people are superstitious about moving house on Friday 13th. However, our data does indicate that, while people overwhelmingly prefer to move house on a Friday compared with any other day in the week, there is a significant drop in the number of people doing so where this lands on the 13th day in the month.

“Data collected over a longer period of time shows that, from 1 April 2003 to 31 August 2017, an average of 1,163 people moved house on Fridays, with the exception of Fridays that happened to be the 13th day in the month, when only half as many (519 on average) house moves took place.

“It looks as though Friday 13th is a less popular Friday to move than the others in the year. We look forward to seeing over the next few weeks whether this trend continued in the month of Halloween.”

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in June 2017 was £144,253 – an increase of 2.9 per cent on June in the previous year and an increase of 0.1 per cent when compared to the previous month.

This compares to a UK average of £223,257, which was an increase of 4.9 per cent compared to June in the previous year and an increase of 0.8 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in April 2017 was 7,908 – an increase of 16.0 per cent on April 2016 but a decrease of 14.2 per cent on the previous month. This compares with annual increases in sales volumes of 1.6 per cent in England, 9.9 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 June continued their upward trend when compared with June 2016. There have been increases in every month since March 2016 when compared with the same month of the previous year.”

“Sales volumes figures for April 2017 showed an increase in Scotland of 16.0% when compared with April 2016. However, volumes in April 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 (964 sales), Glasgow City (868 sales), Fife (543 sales), South Lanarkshire (511 sales) and North Lanarkshire (411 sales).

Price increases were recorded in 29 out of 32 local authorities in June 2017 compared to the previous year. The biggest price increase was in Glasgow City where the average price increased by 8.5 per cent to £123,609. The biggest decrease was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 10.0 per cent to £163,847.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in June 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Flatted properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 4.3 per cent to £104,289.

The average price in June 2017 for property purchased by a first time buyer was £116,315 – an increase of 2.5 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £173,088 – an increase of 3.1 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £136,785 – an increase of 5.1 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £149,192 – an increase of 2.6 per cent on the previous year.