Average property prices 'falling'

Jan 31 2012

More houses were sold in the final quarter of last year but the average price fell, new statistics show.

A report by Registers of Scotland says the average price of a residential property in Scotland dropped by 0.5% to £157,174 between October and December 2011, compared with the same period of 2010.

House prices in Inverclyde fell the most, dropping 12% on the year before. Domestic property in Edinburgh still holds the highest average value, at £226,000, up 4.5% on 2010.

The average price in Glasgow fell by 0.4%, the only city not to see a rise.

The highest percentage rise, 6%, was recorded in West Dunbartonshire where the average house price was £121,966.

East and West Dunbartonshire also saw more properties changing hands, with the number of homes sold in both local authority areas up 28%.

Overall, fewer flats were sold and more houses were sold across Scotland in the last three months of 2011.

Kenny Crawford, Registers of Scotland's director of commercial services, said: "The biggest increase for the number of sales was for detached houses, with 4.5% more sold in the last quarter of 2011, than the last quarter of 2010 (October to December).

"However, the sale of flats dropped by 6.3%, meaning that the overall volume of sales in Scotland rose by 0.2%. This pattern is reflected in the average price of flats which dropped by 7.4%.

"Within these statistics, flatted properties account for over 65% of the domestic property market in Glasgow and Edinburgh and 34% for Scotland. The strength of sales in the house market is having a levelling effect on the market as a whole and this is keeping the changes to Scotland's property averages at under 1%."