Average house prices reach record £224,035 in Scotland – Walker Fraser Steele

Scott Jack, regional development director at Walker Fraser Steele, said: “Records continue to be broken as the average price paid for a house in Scotland in July 2022 reached £224,035,” a 13th consecutive monthly increase. 

“It is tempting to wonder how long this can continue but every time we pause for breath, prices rise again,” he said.

The £224,035 figure as around £18,600 higher than in July 2021, he said, and would mean that prices had jumped by 9.1 per cent in a year.

The biggest increases were found in Argyll and Bute with annual growth rates of 18.1 per cent. Five local authority areas  accounted for 44 per cent of the leap in July: Edinburgh (13 per cent of the overall increase); Glasgow (12 per cent); South Lanarkshire (9 per cent); Perth and Kinross (5 per cent) and Highland (5 per cent).

While the 9.1 per cent annual rate was slower than the 10.6 per cent growth rate in June, the data were affected by an average price drop of nearly £3,000 in June 2021.

Summer housing market

Jack explained: “There is evidence of a fall in transactions in this month’s data which a number of surveyors in Scotland believe is a regular feature of June and July’s housing market, coinciding as it does with the school holidays, and at a time when, emerging from the pandemic, people have been very keen to get away.”

Still, when it comes to the type of property that is attracting higher prices, he said the “race for space” may have slowed as buyers returned to suburban and semi-detached properties “that suit hybrid working”.

Pandemic influence fading?

John Tindale, Acadata senior housing analyst, said that in July semi-detached properties saw the biggest gains in prices at 10.5 per cent while prices for flats grew 9.4 per cent. The report said the increases may suggest that the importance of lifestyle changes have shifted over the past few months with pandemic-era needs becoming less of an influence.

“Or alternatively it may just reflect a change in the mix of those who have purchased properties during the school holidays,” said Tindale. “We will have to wait and see what happens when the schools return this autumn, and families contemplate their next move.”

The report was produced by Acadata, an independent consultancy specialising in house price data, for the Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index (Scotland). Walker Fraser Steele is the trading name of e.surv Chartered Surveyors in Scotland.