Scottish property market makes 'flying start' to 2015

Registers of Scotland today reported that the average house price in Scotland from January to March was £173,830, the highest figure recorded for any quarter since RoS began compiling quarterly statistics in 2003. This represented a 13.3 per cent rise in prices in the fourth quarter of 2014-15.

There was, however, a decrease in the number of sales for the second consecutive quarter, with total volume of sales standing at 16,946, a decrease of 4.7 per cent on the same quarter in the previous year.

Simon Brown, partner and head of residential sales at CKD Galbraith, said: "As a firm we have continued to experience increased demand, which has also led to rising prices achieved across many areas of the country."

"Last year was a time of steady growth in the property market, despite some uncertainty around the referendum period. This growth has continued into 2015, and although the introduction of the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax created a slight spike in high end sales at the very start of the year, this will be more readily seen in the next quarter’s statistics."

"Confidence is building further during the spring sales period, and we are seeing properties taking less time to sell. Unlike the Registers of Scotland stats, we have seen a growth in the number of properties being sold. We believe this is due to an increase in the volume of property instructions the firm has received and especially high demand in the middle of the market."


"The healthy results we have experienced for this quarter demonstrates an encouraging start to 2015 for the Scottish property market."