Property portal Rightmove revealed the average time to secure a buyer in Scotland has dropped from 66 days to 41 days in the last five years. While London and the South of England traditionally drove the property market in the UK, London’s average has nearly doubled from 36 days in 2014 to 60 days this year, putting London back to figures not seen since 2011.

There was also a stark difference between Scotland and England’s length of time to complete the entire conveyancing process. While the UK as a whole took an average of 109 days from an offer being accepted to completion of the sale, Scotland took just 77 days compared with England’s average of 112 days. This means that Scottish buyers are moving into their residential properties 35 days quicker than those in England.

Director of Scottish Property Centre Cardonald, Paul Burns, explained several factors have affected London and the South’s slow-moving market. These include a fall in house prices and sales activity, Brexit uncertainty, as well as changing trends – such as the ‘Bank of Mum and Dad’ – which is allowing first-time buyers to move straight into houses instead of flats.

Burns added that buyers north of the Border have not been impacted in the same manner because Scotland’s “relative affordability, combined with a shortage of available stock means there is still a thriving market, particularly in Glasgow and the West of Scotland.”

More than 25,000 property sales concluded in 3 months

Aberdein Considine’s latest quarterly Property Monitor report revealed Scotland’s property transactions were worth more than £8 billion in the first half of 2019; the highest figure in 11 years.

A total of 25,806 sales concluded in Scotland between April and June 2019, up four per cent on the same period the previous year. This pushed the average price of Scottish homes up 1.6 per cent to £172,189, despite the market stalling and dropping across other parts of the UK.

Edinburgh continues to be the most expensive place to buy a home in Scotland, with the average property costing £264,943. East Lothian, East Dunbartonshire and East Renfrewshire followed the capital with average house prices set high at £260,399, £250,017 and £244,902 respectively. In comparison, East Ayrshire was the cheapest area priced at just £117,676; a 3.3 per cent drop on last year.

Aberdeen house prices up first time since 2017

Average property prices in Aberdeen also increased 1.7 per cent in the second quarter of this year to £202,011, while buying a residential property in Aberdeenshire was 0.3 per cent more than it was in the same quarter in 2018 (from £210,601 to £211,149). The data shows that Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire were 17.3 per cent and 22.6 per cent above Scotland’s average house price.

Senior property partner at Aberdein Considine, Robert Fraser, believes the price increases in both areas could be due to a renewed interest in the oil and gas sector with 10,000 more jobs to be supported in 2019 compared with the previous year:

“As the optimism around the oil and gas sector, as well as news of longer term investment plans, has filtered through, demand for housing has pushed prices higher.”

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