The average annual price of a home in Scotland has risen 2.2 per cent in the last year to £178,991, according to official data from the Registers of Scotland (RoS). This was a 13.6 per cent increase compared with 2013/14 and a 15.9 per cent rise on figures from a decade ago. Since the start of the RoS house price data in 2003/04, the highest quarterly average price was recorded in Q3 of 2018/19 at £181,862.

The local authority area with the most significant increase in average house price compared with the previous financial year was Midlothian, up 8.1 per cent to £220,011. Midlothian also saw the largest price rise from over a decade ago, increasing 31 per cent from the £168,449 recorded in 2007/08. On the other hand, Scottish Borders recorded the largest annual price decrease, down 2.6 per cent to £178,9886.

According to the latest report, Aberdeen house prices have been affected by the oil industry. The average prices in Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire have dropped in the last five years, to £196,511 (9.7 per cent decrease) and £212,501 (8.6 per cent decrease) respectively.

Majority of £1-million plus properties in Edinburgh

The report revealed the average price of a £1-million plus home sold during 2018/19 was £1.36 million. There were 181 residential property sales for over £1 million this year, of which two-thirds (119) were in the City of Edinburgh local authority area. Properties worth £1 million or above accounted for 0.2 per cent of all residential property sales in Scotland and 1.4 per cent in terms of value.

Flats account for highest number of property sales

The volume of property sales was down 0.5 per cent in Scotland during 2018/19, sitting at 101,628; a dramatic drop (32 per cent) when compared with peak year 2006/07 when there were 150,455 sales. Of all property types, flats had the largest volume of residential sales in the last year at 36,635.

More than a quarter of all houses sold were located within one of the seven cities in Scotland - with the majority of sales in Glasgow City and City of Edinburgh (11,586 and 11,246 sales respectively). The average price paid in one of the cities was £194,281; 8.5 per cent more than the national average.

Highest property sale value since 2008

The value of residential property sales reached an 11-year high at £18.2 billion. Despite an annual increase of 1.6 per cent, this figure remains more than 20 per cent below the pre-financial crisis level in 2007/08.

Detached properties had the highest average price of all house types in 2018/19 at £263,336. This subsequently led detached homes to account for the largest share of the residential property market at 29 per cent with a total sales value of £5.3 billion.

Properties located in Scotland’s seven cities had a market value of £5.6 billion, 1.6 per cent down on the previous year (£5.7 billion).

Twelve per cent (or 12,205) of all residential property sales in Scotland were new-builds - the highest proportion in a decade. The value of new builds in Scotland’s residential property market also increased to £3 billion in 2018/19, up 2.1 per cent on the previous year.

Janet Egdell, from Registers of Scotland, concluded on the findings:

"The Scottish property market is a significant component of the Scottish economy.

"In 2018-19, the total value of residential sales continued to rise, largely due to average prices continuing to increase while the volume of sales has levelled off in recent years."

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