Average house price in Scotland up 92 per cent since 2003

The average residential property price in Scotland has increased by 92 per cent since the start of house price data from Registers of Scotland (RoS) in 2003-04.

The latest statistics from Registers of Scotland’s Property Market Report 2020-21 show that the average price of a residential property in Scotland in 2020-21 was £194,100, up by 6.7 per cent on 2019-20 and up by 25 per cent when compared with the pre-financial crash average price of £154,813 in 2007-08.

The volume of residential property sales decreased by 6.5 per cent from 102,053 sales 2019-20 to 95,428 sales in 2020-21 and, although volumes were 36 per cent higher than the low of 70,334 sales in 2011-12, the 2020-21 figure was the lowest volume when compared with the previous three financial years (2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20).

The introduction of Covid-19 measures resulted in a substantial drop in sales being submitted to Registers of Scotland for registration in the first quarter of 2020-21, followed by some higher-than-average increases in the latter quarters of the year as lockdown measures were relaxed.

The sales volume remains 36 per cent below the pre-financial crisis level peak of 149,944 sales in 2006-07.

The value of residential property sales in the financial year 2020-21 was £18.5 billion, a decrease of 0.2 per cent when compared with 2019-20.

This marked the first year there was a decrease when compared with the previous year since 2011-12. The residential sales market value increased every year from 2012-13 to 2019-20, but remains 19 per cent below the pre-financial crisis level peak in 2007-08 (£22.9bn).

The report also looks at the non-residential market. The total market value of non-residential sales in 2020-21 was £2.8bn. Commercial sales accounted for 71 per cent of this total, with the remainder from sales of forestry, agriculture and land.

The non-residential market was also impacted by Covid-19 measures. In particular, there was an adverse impact on the market value of the commercial sales market, with market values in 2020-21 being lower in every month than the market values in 2019-20, except for March 2020-21.

Accountable officer Janet Egdell said: “The combined market value of the residential and non-residential markets in 2020-21 was £21.3bn (Residential £18.5bn and non-residential £2.8bn), 4.9 per cent lower than the previous year 2019-20. The combined market value remains 30 per cent lower than the peak of the market in 2007-08 (£30.4bn), but 24 per cent higher than 2003-04 (17.2bn).”