Compared with the previous month, house prices in Scotland decreased by 1.2 per cent between November 2020 and December 2020.

The UK average house price was £251,500 which was an increase of 8.5 per cent on December 2019 and an increase of 1.2 per cent on the previous month.

The volume of residential sales in Scotland in October 2020 was 12,205, an increase of 31.9 per cent on the original provisional estimate for October 2019.This compares with an increase of 0.9 per cent in England and a decrease of 4.2 per cent in Wales, and a 22.9 per cent increase in Northern Ireland.

In Scotland, Detached properties showed the largest increase, rising by 9.9 per cent in the year to December 2020 to £285,415. Flatted properties showed the smallest increase, rising by 7.3 per cent in the year to December 2020 to £115,600.

Average price increases were recorded in the majority (29) of local authorities, when comparing prices with the previous year. The largest increase was in East Ayrshire where the average price increased by 17.9 per cent to £111,306. The largest decrease was recorded in Aberdeen City, where the average price fell by 2.1 per cent to £142,631.

Registers of Scotland accountable officer Janet Egdell said: “The annual price change of a property in Scotland of 8.4 per cent from December 2019 to December 2020 is the largest increase reported in the UK HPI since March 2015. While this increase may have been influenced by the unusual pattern of transactions resulting from Covid-19 restrictions, we will track to see whether this is a trend that continues in the coming months.

“The volume of transactions in October 2020 was high, catching up on some of the reduction in activity in the market in the previous months. However, the overall sales volumes in the year to October 2020 were significantly lower than in the previous 12 month period reducing by 20.2 per cent over the year.”