Edinburgh house prices soar by 10 per cent in a year

House prices in Edinburgh have continued to spiral, with properties soaring by almost 10 per cent, new figures have revealed.
Momentum is growing in the Scottish housing market, particularly in Edinburgh. Picture: Jane BarlowMomentum is growing in the Scottish housing market, particularly in Edinburgh. Picture: Jane Barlow
Momentum is growing in the Scottish housing market, particularly in Edinburgh. Picture: Jane Barlow

Statistics released from Registers of Scotland show Scotland has outstripped England with a 4.9 per cent rise in house prices in May compared to the previous 12 months.

Edinburgh has seen a rise of 9.9 per cent, which is second in the UK only to West Dunbartonshire where house prices increased by 12.9 per cent on the same month in 2017.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Capital is closely followed by a 9.3 per cent increase in East Renfrewshire.

Registers of Scotland business development and information director Kenny Crawford said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in May, with an increase of 4.9 per cent when compared to May 2017.”

The average price of a Scottish home now stands at £149,004, which is up 4.9 per cent on May last year. Across the UK, the rise during the same period was just 3 per cent. The largest price drop was recorded in Aberdeenshire where values fell by 3.7 per cent to £190,115.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in May when compared with the same month in the previous year. Terraced properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 5.6 per cent to £123,277, while flatted properties increased by 4.6 per cent to £108,414. Detached properties rose 4.7 per cent to £255,133 and semi-detached properties climbed by 4.8 per cent to £154,921.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, something of a slump was detected two months earlier in March of this year. There were 7,861 homes across Scotland sold that month, down 16.1 per cent on 2017. This period coincided with the ‘Beast from the East’ when extreme weather from Siberia brought parts of the country to a standstill.

The average price in May for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £121,183 – an increase of 5 per cent compared to the same month last year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner-occupier was £177,349 – a rise of 4.7 per cent in the same period.

The average price for a cash sale was £137,790 – an increase of 4.8 per cent on last year – while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £154,195 – a jump of 4.9 per cent on May 2017’s figure.

Mark Dyason, managing director at Thistle Finance, said: “While prices in Scotland are still far behind those in England, we’re witnessing a steady rebalancing in the UK property market. Whereas London and the south-east are dragging the UK property market down, Scotland is pulling in the opposite direction.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“There’s a growing momentum in the Scottish market, which is underlined by the sharp rise in residential development activity north of the border.

“Investment that would traditionally have pooled in the Capital is now finding its way into major regional hubs, with Glasgow and Edinburgh leading the way.”