Scottish average house prices reach record £177,166 in July

The average house price in Scotland has reached its highest recorded level after climbing to £177,166 in July.

It represents a 14.6% rise from July last year, and a 2% increase from June this year, UK House Price Index figures show.

Semi-detached properties showed the largest increase in average house price, rising by 16.3% in the year to July to £187,181, Registers of Scotland (RoS) said.

Flats experienced the smallest increase, rising 12.5% over the same period to £124,517, it added.

This July, the highest prices were in the City of Edinburgh, where the average price was £309,227.

By contrast, the cheapest area to buy was East Ayrshire, where the average price was £109,985.

All of Scotland’s 32 local authorities saw increases, when comparing prices with the previous year.

The largest came in Inverclyde where the average price increased by 29% to £119,168, while the smallest came in Stirling, which saw a 4.9% rise to £218,602.

RoS business development director Kenny Crawford said: “The average price of a property in Scotland of £177,166 is the highest reported for any month since January 2004, from when Scottish data for the UK HPI was first available.

“Over the year as a whole from June 2020 to the end of May 2021, the number of transactions has picked up following the reductions caused by Covid-19 measures and cumulatively is now 17% higher than the previous year.”

The average UK house price was £255,535 in July – around £19,000 higher than a year earlier but nearly £10,000 lower than a record of £265,448 in June as a full stamp duty holiday ended.