Scotland’s house prices continued their climb in November, rising in 29 Local Authorities over the year, according to Walker Fraser Steele’s latest House Price Index.
The Index revealed that East Lothian has become authority with highest average values, while the sales of high-value homes in 2022 continued to exceed those in 2021.
With the average Scottish house price now standing at £224, 644, transaction levels in 2022 matched those recorded in 2019.
Scott Jack, regional development director at Walker Fraser Steele, said: “Our data this month may, at first glance, look at odds with other published indices issued by lenders but it is important to understand our higher rate of growth for the period includes all property transactions.
“This is particularly crucial in Scotland as a third of these transactions are made in cash.
“It is also important because it means this third is not as constrained by the cost of mortgage finance.
“Our data is also drawn from the latest available provided by Registers of Scotland so it uses actual completion prices for November, which may have been agreed earlier in the year, as opposed to precompletion valuations or estimates.
He continued: “Scotland is not alone in seeing tentative price growth increases, but our analysis makes a clear point of the value of looking beyond mortgage borrowing for a real understanding of what is going on.
“Property across the UK since the start of the pandemic has consistently out-performed inflation – the average house price in November reached £224,644 – an increase of £40,800 since March 2020, which reflects a comparative growth for the period of 22% compared to consumer prices which have grown by 14.9%.
“On a monthly basis, November’s average price grew by £400 or 0.2%, which though slight in the scheme of things, still means the average house price is at a record high for a ninth time in 2022.”
Overall, average house prices in Scotland continued to rise during November, although the increase was a modest £400, or 0.2%.
The average house price in Scotland in November 2022 has increased by some £14,100 – or 6.7% -over the last twelve months.
Although the annual rate of growth has increased marginally in November, up 0.2% on October’s revised 6.5%, the rate of growth has reduced from June’s 10.4%, which now looks as though it will represent the high point of 2022.
However, prices continued to climb in November, albeit at a reduced rate compared to June, with Scotland setting another record average house price, of £224,644 in the month, for the ninth time this calendar year.
In November 2022, 29 of the 32 local authority areas in Scotland saw their average prices rise above the levels of twelve months earlier, the same number as in October.
The three areas where values fell over the year were, in descending order, Aberdeen City (-8.1%), Scottish Borders (-2.1%) and Inverclyde (0.0%), although in Inverclyde average prices were just £9 lower than they were twelve months previously.
In Aberdeen City, which has fallen seven places over the year to 25th in terms of its ranking of average prices compared to the other 31 local authorities in Scotland, it is detached homes that have experienced the largest fall, from an average £390k in November 2021 to £350k one year later.
The area with the highest annual increase in average house prices in November 2022 was East Lothian, where values have risen by 14.7% over the year.
