UK House Price Index figures for January 2020

Published: 25 March 2020

Three key figures for January:

  • £152,121
    The average price of a property in Scotland
  • 1.6%
    The annual price change of a property in Scotland
  • 0.6%
    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 January 2020 was £152,121 – an increase of 1.6 per cent on January 2019.

Comparing with the previous month, house prices in Scotland increased by 0.6 per cent between December 2019 and January 2020.

The UK average house price was £231,185 which was an increase of 1.3 per cent on January 2019 and a decrease of 1.1 per cent on the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in November 2019 was 9,846, a decrease of 1.5 per cent on the original provisional estimate for November 2018. This compares with a decrease of 5.6 per cent in England. A decrease of 10.2 % in Wales, and an increase of 5.0 per cent in Northern Ireland (Quarter 4 – 2019 compared with quarter in previous year).

In Scotland, terraced houses showed the largest increase, rising by 3.6% in the year to January 2020 to £128,329. Flats or maisonettes fell by 0.3% to £107,557.

Average price increases were recorded in the majority (23) of local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in Scottish Borders, where the average price increased by 10.8 per cent to £160,450. The largest decrease was recorded in City of Aberdeen, where the average price fell by 5.2 per cent to £143,365. Local authority estimates are based on a three-month moving average to reduce volatility.

Annual percentage change in the average residential property price by local authority

In January 2020, the highest-priced area to purchase a property was City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £272,544. In contrast, the lowest-priced area to purchase a property was East Ayrshire, where the average price was £98,490.

Average residential property price by local authority

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 presented here are for January 2020 before government’s plans to contain the spread of coronavirus were launched. March 2020 data is due to published on 20 May 2020.
  4. 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 November 2018.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. Information on individual property purchase prices is available for free via our ScotLIS service.
  8. 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 November because December and January 2020 figures are likely to change when more recent sales applications data are received.
  3. Comparison between the latest provisional estimate for November 2019 with the original provisional estimate for November 2018 as recorded before final figures available. The final revised volume of sales in November 2018 was 10,102 an annual increase of 2.5 per cent in November 2019. However, the sales volume for November 2019 is still subject to revision, and will increase as later registered transactions are incorporated into the index.
  4. Orkney Islands increased by 14.1 per cent. Local authority areas where sales volumes within the 12 months to November 2019 represent less than 1.0 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

Andy Richardson
PR manager
Email: andy.richardson@ros.gov.uk
Telephone: 0131 200 3994 | Mobile: 07975 618126