Scotland prices surged at the end of 2020

Scotland’s house prices rose by 3.1% month-on-month to £198,157 in November 2020, the largest monthly increase since March 2015.

Annual property price inflation now stands at 6.7% north of the border.

The data comes from The Walker Fraser Steele House Price Index (Scotland), which was formerly the Your Move Acadata House Price Index.

Alan Penman, business development manager at Walker Fraser Steele, said: “Rising house prices showed no sign of slowing down in November, with the average house price in Scotland up by 3.1% – the largest monthly increase since March 2015.

“The growth was felt across the board, with 29 of the 32 (91%) local authority areas seeing month-on-month price increases.

“Additionally, transactions numbers remain strong, with our data showing that October volumes surpassed the monthly totals of the previous six years. The busy market reflects an increase in the demand for homes and confirms widespread price growth, rather than for a small number of purchases at the top end of the market.

“Despite the monthly growth, the activity pause in the first lockdown caused overall transaction numbers from January to October 2020 to be down 27% from the same period last year.”

The two major cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh have both experienced rising monthly price growth of 5.0% and 3.8% respectively.

The increase has been attributed to a few factors.

There’s the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax holiday, low interest rates, and lifestyle changes motivated by the pandemic – with people looking for homes with more study areas, gardens and proximity to open spaces.