The Scottish housing market surged in October – as house prices rose by £1,600 in one month and demand soared.
Scottish house prices rose by 1% to reach £168,800, the biggest monthly jump since the introduction of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in April.
There were 9416 sales in the month, a 10% increase year-on-year to make up the highest October total for 10 years.
Your Move's House Price Index also found that prices rose by 1.6% annually.
Christine Campbell, Your Move's managing director in Scotland, said: "So far in 2015, property sales in Scotland for first-time buyers and home movers are increasing three times faster than the rest of the UK.
"The landmark LBTT switch has made it cheaper to buy homes – with the first threshold £145,000, 50% of home sales in Scotland are outside the system.
"With the average cost of a flat in Scotland only £134,000, flat sales have jumped 8% in the third quarter of this year, compared to Q3 2014.
"Low interest rates have also fuelled the fire, as we have seen the highest number of people taking out mortgages over the last two quarters since 2007."
In October the biggest price rises took place in East Lothian, where the value of a typical property rose by £14,000 (6.3%) from September.
The seaside town of North Berwick has also seen strong sales activity as buyers hunt for somewhere with an easy commute to Edinburgh.
Performance in the top of the market also improved, as there were twice as many sales of homes worth more than £1m (30) between August and October than the three months before (14).
