Three key figures for June 2020:

• £157,056
  The average price of a property in Scotland
• 2.9%
  The annual price change of a property in Scotland
• 2.8%
  The monthly price change of a property in Scotland

Estimates for the most recent months are provisional and are likely to be updated as more data is included. The house price index for June 2020 reflects transactions that took place up to the end of June.

Reinstating the publication

The UK HPI publication was temporarily suspended in May 2020 because of the size of the reduction in housing transactions due to government measures to reduce the spread of coronavirus. As a result it was not possible to produce a meaningful measure of UK house prices that would be representative of any true transaction activity within the housing market.

Although fewer transactions are available than usual for the June 2020 UK HPI, RoS and our UK HPI partners have agreed that the UK HPI meets the required standards for publishing. Given the reduction, however, these estimates may be subject to increased volatility, particularly at lower geographical levels where transaction volumes are smaller.

See the publication schedule for reinstating the UK HPI.

By the August 2020 UK HPI (to be published on 21 October 2020) the publication schedule will have returned to normal.

Provisional statistics for June

The latest provisional statistics from the UK HPI show that the average price of a property in Scotland in June 2020 was £157,056, an increase of 2.9 per cent on June 2019.

Comparing with the previous month, house prices in Scotland increased by 2.8 per cent between May 2020 and June 2020.

The UK average house price was £237,834 which was an increase of 3.4 per cent on June 2019 and an increase of 2.7 per cent on the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in April 2020 was 2,340, a decrease of 70.0 per cent on the original provisional estimate for April 2019. This compares with a decrease of 65.2 per cent in England, 63.3 per cent in Wales, and 68.3 per cent in Northern Ireland (Quarter 2 – 2020 compared with same quarter in the previous year).

Transaction volumes for April 2020 in England and Wales are not directly comparable to the provisional estimate of the number of transactions for April 2019 because of processing delays from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on HM Land Registry operations. These figures are therefore more volatile than normal and subject to greater revision as more data becomes available.

Commenting on the volume figures in Scotland, Business Development Director Kenny Crawford said:

“The volume of residential sales in Scotland in April 2020 was down 70 per cent on the original provisional estimate for April 2019. While the introduction of lockdown measures has had a significant impact on April sales figures, the impact of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic were always likely to have a significant impact on housing market activity and these statistics confirm that.”

In Scotland, detached properties showed the largest increase, rising by 5.3 per cent in the year to June 2020 to £271,119. Flatted properties showed the smallest increase, rising by 0.5 per cent in the year to June 2020 to £112,095.

Average price increases were recorded in the majority (21) of local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in West Dunbartonshire, where the average price increased by 8.3 per cent to £114,868. The largest decrease was recorded in East Renfrewshire, where the average price fell by 9.4 per cent to £213,136.

In June 2020, the highest-priced area to purchase a property was City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £281,870. In contrast, the lowest-priced area to purchase a property was both East Ayrshire and Inverclyde, where the average price was £100,804.

Further information on HPI Scotland by local authority, property type, first time buyers and cash sales can be found in the latest HPI Scotland publication.

As with other indicators in the housing market, which typically fluctuate from month-to-month, it is important not to put too much weight on one month’s set of house price data. This will be particularly important over the coming few months, as COVID-19 has reduced the volume of tran