Scottish average house prices lifted by 7.6%, in the year to April with rises in all 32 local authorities, according to the Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index. This left the average price for a home in Scotland at £218,394.
The last time prices rose across all local authorities was last March, the final month of the land and buildings transaction tax holiday. This average rise in April is equal to around £15,500.
On the mainland, the highest increase in average prices over the year was in Argyll and Bute, at 22.7%. The highest local authority property price rises came in the Orkney Islands, where values jumped by 30.4%, but the report points out that the small number of transactions on the Islands – just 17 recorded in April – tends to result in volatile movements in average prices.
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On a weight-adjusted basis, taking in price changes and transactions, five local authority areas in April accounted for 44% of the £15,500 increase in Scotland’s average house price over the year – Edinburgh (17%), Fife (10%), Glasgow (8%), Argyll and Bute (5%) and North Lanarkshire (4%).
On a monthly basis, Scotland’s average house price in April rose by some £1,100, or 0.5%, which is a third less than the near £3,000 increase seen in March.
On the mainland, the largest monthly increase in prices in April was in East Dunbartonshire, at 5.4%, where values rose across all property types except for semi-detached homes. Sales in the area in the month included a £2.2m detached home in Bearsden, which is a town located approximately six miles to the northwest of Glasgow.
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Walker Fraser Steele regional development director Scott Jack says: “Records were made to be broken as the saying goes and the evidence of this month’s data supports that. All 32 local authority areas in Scotland have seen property prices rise on an annual basis. The last time we witnessed this was in March of last year – a month before Holyrood withdrew the land and buildings transaction tax holiday it had introduced to support the market in July 2020.
“While that support was rightly targeted at keeping the housing market functioning during the early months of the pandemic, what is evident now is that people are still looking to move but that a lack of the right kind of stock is supporting prices across the country.
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“Our index shows that the average house price in Scotland has increased by some £15,500 – or 7.6% – over the last twelve months, to the end of April. This is a £2,400 increase over the revised £13,100 growth in prices seen in the twelve months to the end of March 2022.
“The average price paid for a house in Scotland in April of this year is £218,394, setting yet another record price for the country – the tenth occasion that this has happened in the last twelve months. This price is some £15,500 higher than that seen in April 2021, meaning that prices have risen by 7.6% on an annual basis. This annual growth rate is the highest recorded to date in 2022.”
By Roger Baird
Source: Mortgage Finance Gazette