ANNUAL house price growth in Scotland grew to 6% in November, dwarfing both England and Wales.
South of the Border, average prices dropped below 1%, while Scotland reached a new peak average house price, rising to £186,142 – up from £175,541 in 2017, according to analysis by Your Move and Acadata.
Christine Campbell, managing director of estate agent Your Move in Scotland, said the activity north of the Border had gone from “strength to strength”.
She added: “When we’re seeing a slowdown in house price growth south of the Border, it’s encouraging to see that Scotland’s housing market continues to exceed expectations.”
And Alan Penman, business development manager for Walker Fraser Steele – one of Scotland’s oldest firms of chartered surveyors – welcomed the country-wide growth.
“It’s certainly true that the Scottish market seems to be defying gravity. Looking at its strong fundamentals, though, it’s not immediately clear what’s going to bring it down to earth.”
Increasing costs in Scotland were widespread, with nine local authority areas seeing new average house price peaks set in November 2018.
In Edinburgh, prices rose 3.3% in November alone, accounting for half of the 0.7% growth across Scotland that month. That meant the capital city saw an annual increase of 16% on 2017, taking the average price of a house there to £295,665 – one of the highest rises in the UK.
But the city didn’t boast the highest annual growth in Scotland. Clackmannanshire, with an 18.5% increase, and Na h-Eileanan an Iar, with a 24.4% rise, both surpassed Edinburgh.
Even in Glasgow City, where prices only grew by 0.1% over November, the increase was enough to set a new peak average of £165,245.
And a number of other areas had a successful year for growth, including the Highlands (6.4%), West Lothian (7.8%), Moray (6.1%), Angus (8.5%) the Orkney Isles (8.9%) and South Lanarkshire (4.2%).
Overall, 29 of Scotland’s 32 local authorities saw an increase in home value over the year.
But analysts pointed out one area of concern for the market, reporting that year-to-year transactions for the first eight months of 2018 were 4% lower than in 2017.
Why are you making commenting on The National only available to subscribers?
We know there are thousands of National readers who want to debate, argue and go back and forth in the comments section of our stories. We’ve got the most informed readers in Scotland, asking each other the big questions about the future of our country.
Unfortunately, though, these important debates are being spoiled by a vocal minority of trolls who aren’t really interested in the issues, try to derail the conversations, register under fake names, and post vile abuse.
So that’s why we’ve decided to make the ability to comment only available to our paying subscribers. That way, all the trolls who post abuse on our website will have to pay if they want to join the debate – and risk a permanent ban from the account that they subscribe with.
The conversation will go back to what it should be about – people who care passionately about the issues, but disagree constructively on what we should do about them. Let’s get that debate started!
Callum Baird, Editor of The National
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here