We’re delighted to bring you our March 2021 House Price Index Report. We’ve based our report on the Scottish House Price Index issued every month by the Registers of Scotland. It contains accurate date based on actual property registrations in the Land Register. Unlike lender’s property market reports, it includes properties where no mortgage is involved. There is always a slight lag of a month or so because it depends of completed registrations of property in the Land Register. We believe that it’s the most accurate report on the health of the market and that’s despite that slight lag.
The figures we’ll report on today are house price values from January 2021 registrations and November 2020 sales volumes. We’ll focus, firstly, on the figures for the whole of Scotland. We’ll then look at the local authority areas where most of our clients buy and sell their homes.
Average Price
The above chart shows the average price of properties in the local authority areas across Scotland in January 2021.
The average price of a house in Scotland in January 2021 stood at £164,099. This is an increase of 6.9% against the same month in 2020. The average price in January 2020 was £153,518. We can also report that the average price in January 2021 was 1.0% higher than the average price in December 2020. It is fairly clear that there continues to be an under supply of properties for sale. Accordingly, those properties on the market have been achieving a premium with many selling above asking price and Home Report value.
All local authority areas saw an increase in the average price with East Ayrshire, again, being the largest rise for a mainland local authority area with an increase of 13.1% over January 2020. Shetland Islands saw the largest increase in Scotland of 14.2%.
Early indications from a local point of view show that the market continues to be busy with price increases being driven by a lack of supply of quality houses for sale.
We will continue our focus on the market to see if the supply of houses on the open market increase as spring approaches. An increased supply of available property should help even out the market and encourage market activity.
Average price by property type
All types of property saw an increase in January against the corresponding month in 2020.
Detached property prices increased by 7.3% from £266,358 to £285,801.
Semi-detached property prices increased by 8.8% from £160,832 to £174,925.
Terraced properties saw a rise of 8.1%, increasing from £127,855 to £138,174.
Finally, Flatted properties saw an increase of 4.9%, rising from £109,812 to £115,218.
Sales Volumes
Sales volumes is always a good indicator of the health of the market and gives an indication of whether the market is getting busier when compared to the previous year of getting quieter. You should also be aware that sales volumes always lag the average price to ensure that they are completely reliable. There is also revisions policy in place at the Registers of Scotland and as more properties clear the registration process, the figures provided for the month will increase.
The figures contained in this report relate to the sales volumes for November 2020, the latest month for which these figures are available.
These show that the volume of properties sold in Scotland in November 2020 rose to 11,842 from 9,990 in November 2019. This is an increase of 18.5%. The volume of sales increased in every local authority area in November 2020 apart from Dumfries and Galloway (where sales volumes fell from 287 to 281) when compared to the same month in 2019.
Buyer Status
In our March 2021 House Price Index Report we now also have data available on the average price paid by first-time buyers and home movers.
First time buyers paid an average price of £133,484 in January 2021.This was an increase of 7.0% over the January 2020 figure and 1.3% above the average price paid in December 2020.
Home movers paid an average price of £197,022. This was an increase of 6.7% against the figure in January 2020 and an increase of 0.6% on the December 2020 figure.
March 2021 House Price Index Report – the local view
From a local perspective, the local authorities surrounding out office all saw decent increases in the average price in January 2021.
- Glasgow City local authority area saw an increase of 11.6% over January 2020 with the average price increasing from £135,881 to £151,631.
- North Lanarkshire local authority area saw an increase of 9.9% when compared to January 2020 rising from £106,835 to £117,447.
- South Lanarkshire local authority area saw the average price increase from £127,072 to £139,685 – a rise of 9.9%.
- East Renfrewshire local authority area saw an increase of 11.8% in the average price, rising from £223,534 to £250,021.
Local authority volumes of sales for those areas close to our offices also saw increased in November 2020.
- Glasgow City local authority area saw an increase from 1,092 to 1,318 (20.7%) sales.
- North Lanarkshire local authority are saw an increase from 551 to 669 (20.4%) sales.
- South Lanarkshire local authority area saw an increase from 699 to 784 (12.2%) sales, and
- East Renfrewshire local authority are saw an increase from 175 to 190 (8.6%) sales.
If you’re thinking about buying or selling and would like to discuss this with us, please complete the following form:
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