House price statistics from Registers of Scotland.
Three key figures for 2020-21:
- £194,100
The average price of residential property in Scotland - 95,428
The volume of residential property sales in Scotland - £18.5 billion
The value of residential property sales in Scotland
The Property Market Report is the main statistical compendium publication from Registers of Scotland.
It details the major trends in the Scottish land and property market since 2003-04, includes residential and non-residential markets as well as key statistics on house prices and sale transactions.
Fewer transactions were received by RoS than expected in the first quarter of 2020-21 because of the introduction of government measures to reduce the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Take caution when interpreting these statistics and comparing them with previous time periods.
The latest statistics from Registers of Scotland’s Property Market Report 2020-21 show that the average price of a residential property in Scotland in 2020-21 was £194,100, up by 6.7 per cent on 2019-20 and up by 25 per cent when compared with the pre-financial crash average price of £154,813 in 2007-08.
Since 2003-04, the start of RoS house price data, the average residential property price in Scotland has increased by 92 per cent.
The volume of residential property sales decreased by 6.5 per cent from 102,053 sales 2019-20 to 95,428 sales in 2020-21 and, although volumes were 36 per cent higher than the low of 70,334 sales in 2011-12, the 2020-21 figure was the lowest volume when compared with the previous three financial years (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20).
The introduction of COVID-19 measures resulted in a substantial drop in sales being submitted to Registers of Scotland for registration in the first quarter of 2020-21, followed by some higher-than-average increases in the latter quarters of the year as lockdown measures were relaxed.
The sales volume remains 36 per cent below the pre-financial crisis level peak of 149,944 sales in 2006-07.
The value of residential property sales in the financial year 2020-21 was £18.5 billion, a decrease of 0.2 per cent when compared with 2019-20.
This marked the first year there was a decrease when compared with the previous year since 2011-12. The residential sales market value increased every year from 2012-13 to 2019-20, but remains 19 per cent below the pre-financial crisis level peak in 2007-08 (£22.9 billion).
The report also looks at the non-residential market. The total market value of non-residential sales in 2020-21 was £2.8 billion. Commercial sales accounted for 71 per cent of this total, with the remainder from sales of forestry, agriculture and land.
The non-residential market was also impacted by COVID-19 measures. In particular, there was an adverse impact on the market value of the commercial sales market, with market values in 2020-21 being lower in every month than the market values in 2019-20, except for March 2020-21.
Commenting on the release, Accountable Officer, Janet Egdell said:
“The combined market value of the residential and non-residential markets in 2020-21 was £21.3 billion (Residential £18.5 billion and non-residential £2.8 billion), 4.9 per cent lower than the previous year 2019-20. The combined market value remains 30 per cent lower than the peak of the market in 2007-08 (£30.4 billion), but 24 percent higher than 2003-04 (17.2 billion).”
As well as the residential and non-residential markets the Property Market Report 2020-21 also covers:
- Residential sales by house type and price band
- New build residential market
- High value residential market
- City residential market
- Mortgage market
- Residential property sales by urban rural classification
Further information on trends in cash and mortgage-financed sales volumes, the market within Scotland’s seven cities and local authorities, sales of properties within new-build developments and trends by house type can be found in our Property Market Report data tables.
Notes to editors
- Registers of Scotland (RoS) is the government department responsible for compiling and maintaining registers relating to property and other legal documents in Scotland. RoS records and safeguards the rights of the individual while providing open access to information on the registers.
- This is an official statistics publication for Scotland. The statistics have been produced in line with the principles set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.
- The property statistics are compiled using data collected as part of the land registration process. This data is comprehensive, covering transactions across the whole of Scotland for all types of property sales, in residential and non-residential markets, and with actual sale prices, not just valuations. Full information on the methodology used to compile these statistics can be found on our website.
- Further information about the quality processes in place for RoS data is available in the quality assurance of administrative data document, as published for the UK House Price Index.
- RoS began compiling quarterly statistics on the property market with the completion of the extension of the Land Register to all counties in Scotland in April 2003. Details of all of our property statistics releases, including the UK House Price Index, and future publication dates are available on our website.
- Sign up for our data stats alert service.