Prices hit record levels for the seventh time in a year
The average price paid for a house in Scotland has hit a new record high for the country, the seventh time that this has happened in the last 12 months.
According to the latest Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index, the average house price in Scotland was £218,702 in February 2022, a price £16,600 higher than at the same time last year.
It continues the trend of price increases from January and, on a monthly basis, this means prices in February rose by 1.5% or around £3,200, which is the highest increase in a month since August last year.
Thirty of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland saw their average prices rise over the previous 12 months.
The two areas with price falls compared to one year earlier were Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen City. The area with the highest annual increase in average house prices was the Orkney Islands, where values have risen by 28.6% over the year.
John Tindale, senior housing analyst at Acadata, pointed out that Scotland is not alone in seeing house prices continuing to rise.
He said that in February 2022, all nine GOR regions in England and Wales established new record average house price levels, although only Wales had an annual growth rate higher than that of Scotland, at 8.9%.
Read more: House prices in England and Wales – how much have they grown?
“As a piece of context, in February this year, all the regions in England and Wales established new record average house price levels, but it is fair to say that the Scottish property market has robustly withstood one of the most seismic events in living memory in the past couple of years,” Scott Jack, regional development director at Walker Fraser Steele, said.
As to what is causing the ongoing upward movement in prices, both Jack and Tindale agreed that this is the result of people choosing to change the way in which they work and where they choose to do so.
“As we reported last month, in general terms, we are still living with the effects of the pandemic, and the lifestyle changes this has brought about – in particular the ‘Work from Home’ edict has encouraged many to move to larger premises with outdoor facilities,” Tindale said.
“There is still high demand for such homes, but supply is limited, so there continues to be strong competition for the properties that do come on to the market, with resultant price increases.”
In addition, the data analyst said the increase in rental prices is encouraging some investors to consider purchasing buy-to-let properties, adding to the already buoyant demand for homes that currently exists.
The Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index – formerly the Your Move Acadata House Price Index – is produced by Acadata on behalf of Walker Fraser Steele, one of the longest established chartered surveyor brands in Scotland.
It uses the actual prices at which every residential property in Scotland was transacted, including prices for properties bought with cash, using the data provided by Registers of Scotland as opposed to valuation estimates or asking prices.
