SCOTLAND’s property market is enjoying a “moment in the sun”, with house prices growing faster than the UK average, according to new figures.
Statistics from the UK House Price Index (HPI) show the average price of a property in Scotland in May was £152,801.
This marks a 2.8% increase on the same month in 2018 and a 1.2% rise in prices from April 2019.
Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the increase was the third highest in Britain after the north-west of England (3.4% rise) and Wales (3% up).
READ MORE: Brexit fatigue prompts building sector growth in Scotland
The average UK house price in May was £229,431 – up 1.2% on May 2018 and 0.1% in April 2019.
Scotland’s biggest increases were recorded in North Ayrshire, where average prices rose by 8.2% to £110,995 and in Stirling with a 7.2% jump to £189,709.
Average house prices fell 4.4% to £152,686 in Aberdeen city and there was also a decrease in South Ayrshire of 4.1% to £129,413.
Janet Egdell, accountable officer at the Registers of Scotland, said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in May, having increased each month since May 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year. House prices in Scotland were growing faster than the UK annual rate in the year to May 2019.
“Sales in 2018-19, based on provisional data, were at a similar level to the previous financial year.”
Edwina de Klee, partner at Edinburgh-based Garrington Property Finders, said: “The gap between between the Scottish and English property markets is becoming a gulf.
“At well over double the annual pace of price growth in England, and the UK as a whole, Scotland’s property market is enjoying a moment in the sun.
“Buyers and sellers are responding in kind, with sales volumes in March rising to 5% above the level seen in March 2018.
“But that flurry of activity, and the steady upward trajectory in prices across the nation as a whole, is masking the intense polarisation of Scotland’s local markets.
“Aberdeen retains its unwanted wooden spoon as the city where prices are falling fastest. At least the 4.4% decline in the year to May is an improvement on the painful 6.2% fall Aberdeen saw in the 12 months to April. Meanwhile at the other end of the scale, prices in North Ayrshire and Stirling are rising at a dizzying pace.
“While England’s average rate of price growth is being dragged down by London’s sharply falling prices, the declines in Aberdeen are being brushed aside by the Scottish market as a whole. Across Scotland, buyer demand has strengthened, activity levels are picking up and the traditional spring bounce has turned into a summer surge
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