Scottish house prices still seeing 12%+ annual gains

The average price of a property in Scotland in September 2021 was £180,334, an increase of 12.3% on September 2020, though down 0.4% on the previous month, according to the latest provisional statistics from the UK House Price Index released by Registers of Scotland. 

Across the UK, the average house price was £269,945, up 11.8% on September 2020 and 2.5% on August 2021.

Year-on-year rises were seen across the whole of mainland Scotland. There were decreases in Shetland and Na h-Eileanan Siar, where the low number of transactions can cause bigger fluctuations. The biggest year-on-year jump was in Inverclyde, where average prices were up 26.1%, followed by Clackmannanshire (23.8%) and Scottish Borders (21.3%). The smallest mainland rise was in Angus (9.0%), followed by Highland (10.4%) and Dumfries & Galloway (11.3%).

Provisional sales volumes for July 2021 were 10,667, an increase of 114.1% on the original provisional estimate for July 2020, which was soon after the easing of the first COVID lockdown, and slightly down on the June figure of 10,763.

Registers of Scotland business development director Kenny Crawford commented: “Although marginally down on the figure for last month, the average price of a property in Scotland in September, at £180,334, remains one of the highest reported for any month since January 2004, from when Scottish data for the UK HPI was first available.

“Over the year as a whole from August 2020 to the end of July 2021, the number of transactions has picked up following the reductions caused by COVID-19 measures and cumulatively is now 46% higher than the previous year. Figures in the current year to date are also 16% higher than pre-COVID figures from August 2018 to July 2019.”

Click here to access the full report.