A 10-year overview of the property market in Scotland has revealed a mixture of “highs and lows”, with average prices increasing over the decade but the volume of sales falling.
The Registers of Scotland (RoS) report showed the average house price was up 35 per cent, from £123,977 in 2005-06 to £167,396 in 2014-15.
However, during the course of the last 10 years, there has been an overall drop in annual volumes of residential sales for all areas of Scotland, with the total volume falling by 35.1 per cent from 142,933 to 92,798.
The report, which details the trends in the land and property market over the peak years and in the wake of the economic downturn, showed the total value of house sales across the decade was just in excess of £149.3 billion.
Among the report’s findings, it was revealed that cash sales now equate to 35.6 per cent of the market - as compared to 17.6 per cent ten years ago.
All local authority areas recorded an increase in average price but the highest was Aberdeen, which showed a rise of 87.8 per cent, going from £115,955 to £217,821.
Average prices grew the least amount in Glasgow, where they rose 7.2 per cent to £133,070.
Kenny Crawford, RoS director of commercial services, said: “During the course of the last 10 years covered by this report, the Scottish property market has seen a mix of highs and lows.
“Despite the financial crash of 2007-08, the final quarter of 2014-15 achieved the highest average price of the decade at £173,830 and the number of residential properties sold for over a million pounds increased by 70 per cent.
“Activity in the property market gives us an insight into what’s going on in the Scottish economy, which is possible thanks to Registers of Scotland’s digital land register.”
In terms of affordability, comparison with the latest data from the Office for National Statistics indicated that the most affordable areas to buy a home are in both East and North Ayrshire while the least affordable is Aberdeenshire.
On average, a home in Scotland will cost six times the median annual income of £21,770 for an individual, the report showed.