Scottish house prices see 4% annual rise

Monthly house prices rose by 0.8% since May 2016.

United Kingdom house prices rose by 8.7 per cent in the year to June, pushing the average price to £213,927, according to the Land Registry’s latest official figures published today.

The £17,000 increase in the average house price puts savings returns to shame in the current low interest rate environment, and leaves many homeowners with significantly more equity at their disposal than a year ago.

London’s property prices continued their double-digit growth, rising 12.6 per cent in the year to June, taking prices to £472,204. Amid all the doubt and predictions in the last couple of months, London’s property market is still on a long-term upward trend, and prices are 12.6% higher than at the same time past year.

This impact was felt most acutely in March’s transaction figures.

Growth in London remains high at 12.6 per cent, followed by the South East with a 12.3 per cent annual growth.

This compares to a United Kingdom average of £213,927 which was an increase of 8.7 per cent over the year, and an increase of 1.0 per cent when compared to the previous month.

Despite average prices increasing across Scotland, the volume of residential sales slumped by 16%. The City of Edinburgh showed the biggest volume of sales in April with 745 sales.

The biggest fall in house prices was in Aberdeen, which has been hit by low oil prices. “Savers might be forgiven for thinking the outlook can hardly get much worse, but it is likely to mean a prolonged season of discounted mortgage pricing which will provide extra incentive to aspiring homebuyers and remortgagers”.

Despite this, it remains the most expensive spot to buy a property in the country, with the average home fetching £1.2million.

Andrew McPhillips, chief economist at Yorkshire Building Society, said:’Increased house price growth in June was the result of the implementation of the new stamp duty rate for landlords earlier in the year. The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £115,877, an increase of 3.7 per cent on the previous year.

‘Although the longer-term impact of the vote to leave the European Union on house prices remains to be seen, we expect consumer demand to remain high.

But while it said the Brexit vote had knocked sentiment, it added that the month-on-month decline in asking prices was in line with the traditional summer lull.