Monthly House Price Index statistics for May 2018 published

Average price of a property in Scotland up 4.9 per cent on previous year.

The latest publication of the monthly UK House Price Index (UK HPI) shows that the average price of a property in Scotland in May 2018 was £149,004 – an increase of 4.9 per cent on May in the previous year and an increase of 0.1 per cent when compared to the previous month. This compares to a UK average of £226,351, which was an increase of 3.0 per cent on May in the previous year and an increase of 0.1 per cent when compared to the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in March 2018 was 7,861 – a decrease of 16.1 per cent on March 2017. This compares with annual decreases in sales volumes of 21.8 per cent in England and 13.8 per cent in Wales in March 2018, and 12.4 per cent in Northern Ireland in Quarter 1 - 2018.

Registers of Scotland Business Development and Information Director Kenny Crawford said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in May with an increase of 4.9 per cent when compared to May 2017. Average prices have been increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year.

“Residential sales volumes decreased in March. The annual decrease of 16.1 per cent when compared with March 2017 in Scotland is in the context of large decreases across the rest of the UK. The cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date – from April 2017 to March 2018 – was 100,566. This is an increase of 3.1 per cent on the equivalent year to date position in the previous financial year 2016/17.”

Average price increases were recorded in the vast majority (26) of local authorities in May 2018, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increases were in West Dunbartonshire, City of Edinburgh and East Renfrewshire, where average prices increased by 12.9 per cent to £104,989, 9.9 per cent to £251,371 and 9.3 per cent to £225,310 respectively. The largest decrease was recorded in Aberdeenshire where prices fell by 3.7 per cent to £190,115. Decreases were also seen in Angus, City of Aberdeen, Inverclyde and Perth & Kinross, with average prices falling by 0.7 per cent, 3.0 per cent, 3.3 per cent and 1.9 per cent respectively.

Increases in sales volumes were recorded in just three local authorities in March 2018, when comparing volumes with the previous year. The biggest increases were in Highland and West Dunbartonshire, where volumes increased by 3.9 per cent to 395 sales and 2.6 per cent to 118 sales respectively. The biggest decreases were in Aberdeenshire and East Ayrshire, where volumes fell by 29.7 per cent to 289 sales and 26.5 per cent to 158 sales respectively.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in May 2018 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Terraced properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 5.6 per cent to £123,277, while flatted properties increased by 4.6 per cent to £108,414, detached properties increased by 4.7% to £255,133, and semi-detached properties increased by 4.8% to £154,921.

The average price in May 2018 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £121,183 – an increase of 5.0 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £177,349 – an increase of 4.7 per cent on the previous year.

The average price for a cash sale was £137,790 – an increase of 4.8 per cent on the previous year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £154,195 – an increase of 4.9 per cent on the previous year.

ENDS

Notes to editors

1. Registers of Scotland is the government department responsible for compiling and maintaining registers relating to property and other legal documents in Scotland. Registers of Scotland records and safeguards the rights of the individual while providing open access to information on the registers.
2. The UK HPI is now published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. Previously these figures were published on the second or third Tuesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. See the calendar of release dates. Further information on this change is available in this statement.
3. For the full picture and detail, access the UK HPI and the HPI Scotland. As with other indicators in the Housing Market, which typically fluctuate from month to month, it is important not to put too much weight on one month’s set of house price data.
4. A blog post by Rhys Lewis from the Office for National Statistics has been published explaining why there are revisions to UK House Price Index data and what is being done to make provisional estimates more accurate. An accompanying article has also been published which focuses on the amendment made to the estimation model when calculating the provisional estimate in the UK HPI and the impact of this change.
5. We have published the Quality Assurance of Administrative Data (QAAD) documents for each of the data sources used in the UK House Price Index.
6. In addition to the enhancements to the UK HPI that were summarised in the anniversary news release, a comparison guide has been produced that compares the source data, index and methods of the different house price index measures that are published in the UK. This guide highlights the strengths and limitations of each measure to aid users in choosing the most appropriate index for their requirements.
7. Registers of Scotland published our Property Market Report 2007-08 to 2017-18 last month, detailing trends in the land and property market over the reporting period. Our most recent Calendar Year Market Review 2017 was published in March 2018.
8. The statistics have been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. The UK House Price Index is calculated by the Office for National Statistics and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland. Find out about the methodology used.
9. Data for the UK House Price Index is provided by HM Land Registry, Registers of Scotland, Land & Property Services Northern Ireland and the Valuation Office Agency.
10. Separate HPI releases are also published by HM Land Registry and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland, which focus on the figures for England and Wales and for Northern Ireland. The Office for National Statistics also publishes a monthly HPI statistical bulletin with commentary on the whole of the UK.
11. Download the data. Datasets are available as CSV files, or create your own reports using the UK HPI search tool.

12. The new UK HPI was launched in June 2016 initially as an experimental official statistic to allow for users to acclimatise to the format of the new HPI, to evaluate user reaction to the new data, evolve the publication of data further to meet user requirements and to further develop the data sources used in the production. We removed our experimental statistic status from 13th February 2018.

    Further information about this change in status and the improvements introduced to the UK HPI since its launch can be found in section 1.1 of About the UK House Price Index. The HPI working group will continue to progress with the assessment of the UK House Price Index as a National Statistic.

    Please note that the Northern Ireland Residential Property Price Index, used as a component source in the production of the new UK HPI remains an Official Statistic.

14. On Thursday 23 November 2017, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) confirmed the UK HPI will be designated as National Statistics if 8 requirements are addressed. Further information about the OSR assessment is available in a news release published by our partner HM Land Registry.
15. Registers of Scotland began compiling quarterly statistics on the housing market with the completion of the extension of the Land Register to all counties in Scotland in April 2003. The differences in methodology between our quarterly statistics and the HPI are highlighted here. Charts are also available on our website to allow comparison between the two statistical outputs and to explain the key differences.
16. Follow us on Twitter @RegistersOfScot, Facebook and LinkedIn . Sign up for our customer newsletter.