West lothian leads scottish house price growth

Photo: Kristian Dela Cour

West Lothian is leading house price growth in Scotland, according to new figures from the Registers of Scotland.

The average price for residential property in Scotland climbed 3.6 per cent in 2015 to £169,402.

Edinburgh outpaced the national average with a rise of 4.9 per cent, taking the city's typical property price to £238,036.

The highest annual Change in average price, though, was in West Lothian, rising 9.1 per cent to £161,014 in 2015. The only area to show a slight decrease in average price was East Renfrewshire, dropping 0.6 per cent to £227,369.

Semi-detached properties in Scotland showed the largest increase in average price by type, rising by 3.4 per cent in 2015 to £157,995. Detached properties, however, have the highest average price at £248,921.

The total value of the residential property market in Scotland continues to
increase, with the value of sales growing by 8.2 per cent since 2014 to over £16.5 billion. The City of Edinburgh holds the biggest portion of this market value, with a share of 17.2 per cent of the total market value, bringing in over £2.8 billion to the Scottish economy. Glasgow City is the second biggest, contributing over 1.6 billion and representing 9.8 per cent of the total market value.

The City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City also continue to record the highest
percentages of volumes in Scotland with 12.3 per cent and 11.9 per cent shares respectively.

Overall, sales volumes in Scotland rose by 4.5 per cent in 2015, rising to 97,701. Although the average house prices for East Renfrewshire dropped slightly, the Local Authority showed the highest increase in sales volumes, rising 13.1 per cent over the year.