Dunfermline property price slump shown in Halifax survey.

HOUSING: Halifax figures contradict recent Aberdein Considine survey

A survey has revealed a huge property price slump in Perth, with the city topping a countdown of the weakest year-on-year growth in average house costs.

According to Halifax, the drop in Perth has been 5.3%, with the average house price for 2017 down by £10,126 to £180,687.

The study seems to conflict with a recent report compiled by Aberdein Considine, whose property monitor analysis for Scotland found property prices across the Perth and Kinross region had soared, with a 6.1% year-onyear increase.

Aberdein Considine said a shortage of stock coming onto the market was inflating selling prices, with the average cost of a home at £203,398.

Halifax’s survey is based on individual towns and cities, rather than regions.

It lists Perth as the weakest for price rises, followed by Stoke-on-Trent (at -4%) and then former UK City of Culture rival Paisley at -3.6%, where the average house price has fallen to £123,665.

Halifax managing director Russell Galley said: “The majority of towns in which house prices have dropped in the last year are situated within Scotland or Yorkshire and the Humber.”

Dunfermline is fifth equal with Rotherham, reporting a -2.2% drop to £158,442. No other place in Courier Country makes it on to the list of 20 weakest price increases.

On the other side of the spectrum, Cheltenham, on the edge of the Cotswolds, had the highest percentage rise in house prices of any major UK town or city in the last year.

Prices there rose at nearly five times the average UK rate during 2017, at 13% compared to 2.7% nationally.

A total of 15 of the top 20 list are from London and southern England.

Halifax used its own database to calculate its findings.

Mr Galley said: “A number of towns and cities have recorded significant rises in house prices over the past year, with all of the top 20 performers recording growth of at least double the national average.

“Unlike last year, the top performers are not exclusive to London and the south-east, with the top spot now belonging to Cheltenham in the southwest, and towns in East Anglia, East Midlands, north-west England, Wales and Yorkshire and the Humber also making the list.”