RAISING THE ROOF

House sales on the up

North Lanarkshire is one of the top five local authority areas for property sales.

The latest house price index statistics, released last week by Registers of Scotland, reveal that in August, 448 homes were sold in North Lanarkshire – an increase of 23 on the same period last year (5.4 per cent).

That puts the region in fifth place behind City of Edinburgh, Glasgow City, Fife and South Lanarkshire.

The total volume of residential sales Scotland in August 2017 was 9282 – an increase of 7.4 per cent on August 2016 and an increase of 5.3 per cent on the previous month.

However house prices in North Lanarkshire have remained more or less static.

In October, the average house price in the area was £101,125, compared to £101,034 last year – a rise of just 0.1 per cent.

Average price increases were recorded in 29 out of 32 local authorities in October 2017, when comparing prices with last year.

The biggest price increases were in Dumfries and Galloway and City of Edinburgh, where the average prices rose by an emphatic 10.5 per cent and 8.5 per cent respectively.

Conversely, the biggest decreases were recorded in Inverclyde and Aberdeen City, where prices fell by 4.0 per cent for both.

Across Scotland, all property types showed an increase in average price in October 2017 when compared with the same month in the previous year. Semi-detached properties showed the biggest increase, rising by 4.2 per cent to £151,131.

The average price of detached properties showed the smallest increase, 0.9 per cent to £248,482.

The average price in October 2017 for a property purchased by a first time buyer was £116,042 – an increase of 3.4 per cent compared to the same month in the previous year. The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £172,056 – an increase of 2.3 per cent on the previous year.

Average price increases were recorded in 29 out of 32 local authorities in October this year