- Scottish house price increases leave England, Wales and Northern Ireland standing
- Affordability still the main driver of growth
- Edinburgh powers growth with 14.5% average annual increase
- 26 of 32 local authorities see prices rise on annual basis monthly increase
Scottish annual house price growth has accelerated again, increasing by 7.7% in March. That compares to just 1.0% in England and Wales as a whole for the same month. Wales, bolstered by high-value sales as buyers rush to beat the new Land Transaction Tax in April, also still trails well behind, with annual growth of 4.8%. Moreover, while prices fell between February and March in England and Wales, they continued growing in Scotland, up 1.2%. That puts the average price at £184,850, up more than £13,000 in the last 12 months from £171,614 last March.
Alan Penman, business development manager for Walker Fraser Steele, one of Scotland’s oldest firms of chartered surveyors and part of the LSL group of
companies, said: “We should welcome the growth we’re seeing in property prices in Scotland because it reflects a strong economy. We shouldn’t be blind to the fact that price increases reflect not just strong demand, but also a pronounced lack of supply in housing, however.”