A substantial increase in residential property sales in Scotland saw total value of transactions pass £16.5bn in 2015.
According to figures released by Registers by Scotland, 97,701 sales took place across the country over the last year. This was the highest annual figure since 2008 and a rise of 4.5% in comparison to 2014.
Rises
The largest volume of sales was recorded in Edinburgh with 11,991, up by 8.3% on 2014. This was followed by Glasgow, where sales totalled 11,616. East Renfrewshire saw the largest yearly growth in sales, up by 13.1%. Aberdeen was the area with the largest decrease, where sales transactions slipped by 11.8%.
On average, the price of a residential property increased by 3.6% to £169,402 during 2015.
Annually, the largest change in average price was in West Lothian, where prices rose by 9.1% to hit £161,014. The sole local authority area to show a fall in average prices was again East Renfrewshire, where values slipped by 0.6% to £227,369.
Changes by type
Whilst the average price for all property types increased during 2015, semi-detached houses showed the largest rise in values, up by 3.4% to £157,995. That said, detached properties had the highest average price of £249,921.
Flats have the largest volume share, with 36.2% of the market as a whole. The lowest share is taken by semi-detached homes, which take up 18.4%.
Statistics from the Registers for Scotland report cover all residential sales in the country between £20,000 and £1m, including those that did not include a mortgage.
Property sales in Scotland soared during 2015
Contribution
Registers of Scotland’s director of commercial services, Kenny Crawford, said, ‘the total value of the residential property market continues to make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy.’[1]
‘‘In 2015, the market totalled £16.5 billion, an increase of 8.2 per cent on the previous year. The Edinburgh property market represented over 17.2% of this figure, bringing in over £2.8 billion to the Scottish economy. This is significantly larger than the next biggest property market, Glasgow, with 9.8% of the market at £1.6 billion,’ Crawford added.[1]
[1] http://www.propertywire.com/news/europe/scotland-property-sales-record-2016031111661.html