The latest UK House Price Index (UK HPI) has revealed an average annual property price increase of 8.4% in August, taking the average property value in the UK to £218,964. On a month by month basis, average house prices rose by 1.3% since July.

Looking more closely at the position in Scotland, the figures show that in August, prices rose by 4.3% on an annual basis, and by 1.3% when compared to the previous month. The average house price in Scotland during July was apparently £144,561.

Scottish Sales Volume

In terms of property sales, the areas with the biggest sales volumes in Scotland were the City of Edinburgh (1,053 sales), Glasgow City (1,003 sales), South Lanarkshire (568 sales) Fife (515 sales), and North Lanarkshire (448 sales).

“The volume of residential sales in Scotland in June 2016 was 8,620 – a decrease of 7.4% on the previous year, but up 20.9% on last month,” commented Kenny Crawford, Registers of Scotland’s director of commercial services.

“We still may be seeing some impact from changes in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax that came into effect on 1st April 2016 for additional dwellings, such as second homes and buy-to-let properties,” he added. “These changes are likely to have contributed to the significant increase in volumes seen in March and to the subsequent lower volumes that have followed in April, May and June.”

Price Changes

East Renfrewshire saw the biggest increase in prices, with the average house price rising by 12.7% to £219,511. The City of Aberdeen again saw the biggest price decrease in Scotland, with prices falling 8.7% to £175,922.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price when compared with the previous year, with semi-detached properties showing the biggest increase of 5.6% to £151,917.

The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £173,859 – an increase of 4.7% on the previous year. The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £116,383 – an increase of 3.9% on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £132,784 – an increase of 3.8% on the previous year, while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £150,020 – an increase of 4.6% on the previous year.

England and Wales

Looking at England, the UK HPI shows that house prices here increased annually by 9.2% on average, taking the average property value to £235,573. Monthly house prices have risen by 1.4% since July 2016.

Wales experienced an annual price increase of 2.7%, which takes the average property value to £144,514. Monthly house prices have fallen by 0.6% since July 2016.

London saw the biggest annual house price increase in the UK, with prices increasing by 12.1% on average, taking the average property value to £488,908. However, on a monthly basis, prices in August only rose by 1.3% over the previous month.

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