In May typical house prices north of the border stood at £172,119, down from £180,439 last year, as higher Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) rates continue to bite.
Scottish house prices were 4.6% lower than last year in May 2016 despite rising by 0.9% in a single month, the Your Move Acadata monthly Scotland House Price Index has found.
In May typical house prices north of the border stood at £172,119, down from £180,439 last year, as higher Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT) rates continue to bite.
Homes costing more than £254,000 are subject to more tax than when Scotland used stamp duty before switching to LBTT in April 2015.
The market has also had to deal with the 3% surcharge on second homes and buy-to-let introduced in April this year.
Christine Campbell, Your Move managing director in Scotland, said: “Next month the spike in prices from the 2015 LBTT change will fall out of annual figures.
“The Scottish market is starting to get back to some sense of normality, yet with Brexit, there could be some changes ahead. The next few months are going to be interesting, but thus far the sentiment is very much business as usual, with the market remaining buoyant.
“This month also sees new ONS UK-wide House Price Indices combining the Registers of Scotland (RoS), the Land Registry for England & Wales and the Land and Property Services Northern Ireland.
“It’s calculation method (explained below) sees the average price in Scotland fall from £162,045 to £141,409. There figures in this report, however, remain consistent and comparable with our previous data.”
