House prices in Scotland grow faster than the UK average

Published: 17 July 2019

Monthly UK House Price Index figures released for May 2019.

Three key figures for May:

  • £152,801
    The average price of a property in Scotland
  • 2.8%
    The annual price change of a property in Scotland
  • 1.2%
    The monthly price change of a property in Scotland

The latest statistics from the UK House Price Index (HPI) show that the average price of a property in Scotland in May 2019 was £152,801 – an increase of 2.8 per cent on May in the previous year.

Comparing with the previous month, house prices in Scotland rose by 1.2 per cent between April 2019 and May 2019.

The UK average house price was £229,431, which was an increase of 1.2 per cent on May in the previous year and an increase of 0.1 per cent on the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in March 2019 was 8,255 – an increase of 5.0 per cent on the original provisional estimate for March 2018. This compares with increase of 0.7 per cent in England and a decrease of 1.2 per cent in Wales and 6.0 per cent in Northern Ireland (Quarter 1 – 2019). From April 2018 to March 2019, the cumulative sales volume in Scotland was 101,009, the same as in the previous financial year (2017-18). The 2018-19 figures are provisional and likely to change.

Commenting on the release, Accountable Officer Janet Egdell said:

Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in May, having increased each month since May 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year. House prices in Scotland were growing faster than the UK annual rate in the year to May 2019. House sales in 2018-19, based on provisional data, were at a similar level to the previous financial year. A long-term view of the Scottish property market can also be found in our recently published Property Market Report.

Average price increases were recorded in the majority (23) of local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The biggest price increases were in North Ayrshire and Stirling where average prices increased by 8.2 per cent to £110,995 and 7.2 per cent to £189,709 respectively.

The largest decreases were recorded in Aberdeen City and South Ayrshire, where average prices fell by 4.4 per cent to £152,686 and 4.1 per cent to £129,413 respectively. Local authority estimates are based on a three month moving average to reduce volatility.

Further information on HPI Scotland by local authority, property type, first time buyers and cash sales can be found in the latest HPI Scotland publication.

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.

Notes to editors

  1. Registers of Scotland is the public body 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 published on the second or third Wednesday of each month with Northern Ireland figures updated quarterly. See the calendar of release dates.
  3. The statistics have been produced in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The UK House Price Index is calculated by the Office for National Statistics and Land & Property Services Northern Ireland. The UK HPI was designated as National Statistics by the Office for Statistics Regulation on 18 September 2018.
  4. Registers of Scotland provides data on residential property sales for the Scotland element of the UK House Price Index. 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.
  5. Details of all of our property statistics releases and future publication dates are available on our website. A comparison guide comparing the different house price index measures that are published in the UK is also available.
  6. Information on individual property purchase prices is available for free via our ScotLIS service.
  7. Sign up for our data stats alert service.

Footnotes

  1. All average prices reported from the UK HPI are geometric means, which will typically be closer to the median than the arithmetic mean.↩
  2. Due to there being a period of 2 to 8 weeks between completion and registration of sales, volume figures based on the month of date of entry are presented up to March because March and May 2019 figures are likely to change when more recent sales applications data are received.↩
  3. Comparison between the latest provisional estimate for March 2019 with the original provisional estimate for March 2018 as recorded before final figures available. The final revised volume of sales in March 2018 was 8,043, which equates to an annual increase of 2.6 per cent in March 2019. However, the sales volume for March 2019 is still subject to revision, and will increase as later registered transactions are incorporated into the index.↩
  4. Na h-Eileanan Siar showed an increase of 18 per cent to £124,691. Shetland Islands and Orkney Islands showed a decrease of 14 per cent to £162,559 and 5.8 per cent to £142,481. Local authority areas where sales volumes within the 12 months to March 2019 represent less than 1 per cent of the all Scotland sales volume are excluded from the figures used for highlighting purposes due to the volatility of the market in these areas.↩

Media contact

Jacq Kelly
Press and public affairs manager
jacqueline.kelly@ros.gov.uk
07825 388 120