Registers' latest market report tracks Scottish property trends

Key trends in the Scottish residential property market are revealed in Registers of Scotland's sixth annual Property Market Report, published today.

It tracks the Scottish land and property market from the pre-financial crisis period in 2007-08, through the subsequent economic downturn, to the latest trends in sales volumes and prices up to 2017-18.

For the latest year the total value of residential sales alone was £17.9bn, an increase of 7.8% compared with 2016-17. At its peak in 2007-08 the market was worth nearly £23.1bn, but two years later, at the lowest point in the recession, this had slumped to below £10.9bn, and no significant revival was seen until 2013-14.

Post-recession prices remained relatively stable until 2012-13, but have been generally increasing since then, and are now on average 13.2% higher than in 2007-08.

RoS’ Business Development and Information Director, Kenny Crawford commented: "The volume of residential sales in 2017-18, at 102,430, remains substantially lower than the 149,145 sales recorded in the pre-financial crisis period in 2007-08. However volumes in 2017-18 were the highest since 2007-08 and have been increasing year on year from the recent low of 70,507 in 2011-12."

Further key findings revealed in the report include:

• new-build property sales accounted for 11.7% of the all-Scotland sales in 2017-18, with a total of 11,969 sales;
• the proportion of residential sales being registered with a mortgage fell from 84.5% in 2007-08 to 68.3% in 2016-17;
• non-residential sales, including commercial, land, agriculture and forestry, had a total market value of £4.3bn in 2017-18;
• the annual volume of commercial leases decreased by 38.5% between 2007-08 and 2017-18, from 1,178 to 725.

Click here to access the full report, and a data tables download.