Four keepers celebrated 400 years of land registration in Scotland as a specially commissioned poem by Scotland’s Makar, Jackie Kay, was read to the public for the first time today.

The poem celebrates the 400th anniversary of the General Register of Sasines, the world’s oldest national land register. The sasine register is the responsibility of the Keeper of the Registers of Scotland.

The current Keeper of the Registers, Sheenagh Adams, was joined by three previous keepers at the event which also saw a new artwork, specially commissioned to mark the anniversary, dedicated to the public.

The Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work, Keith Brown, will attend the official opening of Registers of Scotland’s new offices at Saint Vincent’s Plaza in Glasgow tomorrow as part of the ongoing celebrations.

The keeper, Sheenagh Adams, said:

“We are proud of the work that we do to maintain the oldest national land register in the world for the people of Scotland. We have 400 years of learning and expertise and are consolidating that with modern practices that serve the needs not only of our customers, but of our stakeholders, partners and employees.

“It is fitting that I was joined by three previous keepers today, all of whom have played an important role in RoS’ history, as well as the Cabinet Secretary, Keith Brown, who will officially open our new offices in Glasgow. It is an honour to be able to mark the occasion with this specially commissioned art work and poetry, and we are grateful to everyone involved. It is a delight to be able to bring together so many of our partners in celebration of our 400 year anniversary.”

Text of poem

SASINE
Jackie Kay

Then my auld freend, as the furst sign
Let’s haund ower a clod o’ earth
And ken that ye and I will keep our wurd
Over time’s lang in-between.

Ye came tae life in a dwam, a dream,
A name here shows whaur you’ve been, lang syne.
To measure time, your deeds, this record –
Seizer! The auldest o’ the wurld.

Auld Caledonia: front runner, streaks ahead;
So far that you kin turn and look back;
The slow, timeless stare o’ the stag,
A heap o’ stones, a sma’ time-lag.

Plot, bothy, shack, croft, lease.
A writ stamped, counterpart, peace.
This land register – across these four centuries:
Fast furward, back; here’s your old stories.

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in April 2017 was £145,734 – an increase of 6.8 per cent on April in the previous year and an increase of 5.4 per cent when compared to the previous month.

This compares to a UK average of £220,094, which was an increase of 5.6 per cent compared to April in the previous year and an increase of 1.6 per cent when compared to the previous month.

Registers of Scotland corporate director John King said: “This release marks the one-year anniversary of the first publication of the UK HPI. During this time, the HPI has been well received and we have been liaising with users around its ongoing development. Feedback has already resulted in a number of enhancements, details of which are outlined in the anniversary news release, published on behalf of the HPI working group by our partner HM Land Registry.

“Average prices this April showed the highest year-on-year increase since March 2015, when the average price increased by 10.4 per cent compared to the year before, and there have been increases in every month since March 2016 when compared with the same month of the previous year.”

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in February 2017 was 5,662 – an increase of 2.8 per cent on February 2016 but a decrease of 10.2 per cent on the previous month. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 18.2 per cent in England, 8.8 per cent in Wales and 28.5 per cent in Northern Ireland. This is the third consecutive month in which Scotland volumes figures, when compared with the same month of the previous year, have shown an increase while volumes in the rest of the UK have decreased.

Mr King added: “Sales volumes figures for February 2017 showed an increase in Scotland of 2.8% when compared with February 2016. This is also up by 10.7 per cent when compared with February 2015 and up by 32.1 per cent when compared with February 2013, but down by 1.3 per cent when compared with February 2014.”

The top five local authorities in terms of sales volumes were Glasgow City (722 sales), the City of Edinburgh (562 sales), Fife (356 sales), North Lanarkshire (351 sales) and South Lanarkshire (313 sales).

The biggest price increase when comparing April 2017 with April 2016 was in East Dunbartonshire where the average price increased by 11.2 per cent to £202,466. The biggest decrease was again in the City of Aberdeen, where prices fell by 4.3 per cent to £167,630.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in April 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 8.0 per cent to £252,492.

The average price in April 2017 for property purchased by a first time buyer was £117,556 – an increase of 5.9 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £174,848 – an increase of 7.5 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £138,425 – an increase of 10.6 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,688 – an increase of 6.4 per cent on the previous year.