Christine Campbell, Your Move managing director in Scotland, said: “The market in Scotland looks strong compared to almost anywhere else in the UK. A lot of that is down to the resilience of the market in Glasgow, but the performance has been good across the board."
After a slight dip in the previous month, prices returned to growth in November in Scotland, rising 0.3% and raising average annual growth in the country to 3.5%.
This was up from the 3.3% recorded in October and compares with just 0.9% in the same month for England and Wales, the Your Move House Price Index for Scotland found.
Christine Campbell, Your Move managing director in Scotland, said: “The market in Scotland looks strong compared to almost anywhere else in the UK.
“A lot of that is down to the resilience of the market in Glasgow, but the performance has been good across the board. 2017 proved to be a positive year for the market.”
Only the South West of England at 5.3%, the North West at 3.9% and Wales at 3.6%, are growing more strongly.
The rise means the average home in Scotland at the end of November was worth £175,882, up £6,016 on a year before.
Transaction levels are also strong with sales in the eight months to the end of August, the highest number in close to a decade, up 5.4% on the same period in 2016 at 66,786.
Alan Penman, business development manager for Walker Fraser Steele, Scottish chartered surveyors, said: “The level of transactions in Scotland is even more notable than the consistently rising prices. If this is maintained, we can look to 2018 with considerable confidence.”
Glasgow saw average prices reaching a new peak in November of £157,353 and up 9.9% annually.
Combined with solid transaction levels, and the city now accounts for more than a quarter (27%) of the increase in values in Scotland over the last year, on a weight-adjusted basis.
With Fife, where prices are up 4.8%, Perth and Kinross (7.7%), Renfrewshire (7.9%) and West Lothian (7.5%), these top five authorities account for more than half (54%) of the increase.
Edinburgh has seen more modest growth over the last 12 months at just 1% and accounts for another 5% of the weighted average increase.
Areas with lower transaction volumes have seen some rises over 12 months. Prices in Stirling are up 9%, the biggest increase on the mainland after Glasgow.
Offshore, where low sales volumes make pricing volatile, the Shetland Islands has seen growth of 10.1% and average prices in the Orkneys are up 13.3%.
Only five of Scotland’s 32 local authority areas have seen average house prices fall over the last twelve months.
Clackmannanshire is down 8.3%, Argyll and Bute, 3.8%, Aberdeenshire, 2.4%, Angus, 1.1% and Dundee City, 0.4%.
