House prices in Scotland grow twice as fast as the UK average

Published: 18 September 2019

Monthly UK House Price Index figures released for July 2019.

Three key figures for July:

  • £153,968
    The average price of a property in Scotland
  • 1.4%
    The annual price change of a property in Scotland
  • 0.7%
    The monthly price change of a property in Scotland

Estimates for the most recent months are provisional and are likely to be updated as more data is included.

The latest provisional statistics from the UK House Price Index (HPI) show that the average price of a property in Scotland in July 2019 was £153,968 – an increase of 1.4 per cent on July in the previous year.

Comparing with the previous month, house prices in Scotland rose by 0.7 per cent between June 2019 and July 2019.

The UK average house price was £232,710, which was an increase of 0.7 per cent on July in the previous year and an increase of 0.5 per cent on the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in May 2019 was 9,540 – an increase of 19 per cent on the original provisional estimate for May 2018. This compares with an increase of 2.6 per cent in England, 3.7 per cent in Wales and a decrease of 1.8 per cent in Northern Ireland (Quarter 2 – 2019).

Commenting on the release, Business Development Director Kenny Crawford said:

The UK HPI shows that house prices in Scotland grew twice as fast as the UK average in July 2019, and have been growing faster than the UK annual rate in all but three months since December 2017

On average, Edinburgh is still the most expensive place in Scotland to buy a home - house prices have risen almost £8,000 in the city over the past year, but areas such as East Dunbartonshire and Stirling have shown large increases too. By contrast, between July 2018 and July 2019, the average price of residential property in the city of Aberdeen fell by around £10,000.

Registers of Scotland’s data helps to produce what is widely regarded as the most accurate and detailed insight into UK residential property prices. You can use the free ScotLIS service to check house prices in your area.

In Scotland, detached houses showed the largest increase, rising by 3.2% in the year to July 2019 to £266,304. Flats and maisonettes showed the largest decrease, falling by 0.4% in the year to July 2019 to £110,607.

Average price increases were recorded in the majority (25) of local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in East Dunbartonshire, where the average price increased by 6.4 per cent to £223,331. The largest decrease was recorded in City of Aberdeen, where the average price fell by 6.3 per cent to £148,151.

Local authority estimates are based on a three month moving average to reduce volatility.

In July 2019, the highest-priced area to purchase a property was City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £263,894. In contrast, the lowest-priced area to purchase a property was East Ayrshire, where the average price was £96,482.

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 May because June and July 2019 figures are likely to change when more recent sales applications data are received.
  3. Comparison between the latest provisional estimate for May 2019 with the original provisional estimate for May 2018 as recorded before final figures available. The final revised volume of sales in May 2018 was 8,135, an annual increase of 17 per cent in May 2019. However, the sales volume for May 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 7.3 per cent to £116,613. Local authority areas where sales volumes within the 12 months to May 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