Cash? That will do nicely!

Half of Argyll and Bute house sales are to cash buyers.

NA h-Eileanan Siar and Argyll and Bute had the highest proportion of house cash sales of all local authority areas in 2017-18, where more than 50 per cent of residential sales were cash sales; 50.3 and 50.1 per cent respectively.

In 2017-18, cash sales accounted for an average 31.7 per cent of the 102,430 residential sales across Scotland. This was the highest proportion of cash sales recorded over the reporting period; 10 years ago the figure was 15.5 per cent (2007-08).

A total 69,983 residential sales were registered with a mortgage in 2017-18, a fall of 44.5 per cent over 10 years.

The latest Monthly House Price Index, for December 2018, has been published by the Registers of Scotland and the volume of sales is down but prices are up.

The average price of a property in Scotland in December 2018 was £148,711 – an increase of 2.4 per cent on December in the previous year and a decrease of 0.9 per cent when compared to the previous month. This compares to a UK average of £230,776, which was an increase of 2.5 per cent on December in the previous year and an increase of 0.2 per cent when compared to the previous month.

‘Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in December with an increase of 2.4 per cent when compared to December 2017. While the average price has increased each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year, the trend in sales volume has not been as positive,’ said Janet Egdell, Registers of Scotland operations director and accountable officer.

‘The volume of residential sales in Scotland increased in October, but has decreased in most months since November 2017, when compared with the same month of the previous year. This downward trend is also reflected in the cumulative volume of sales for Scotland for the financial year to date. ‘From April to October 2018, the cumulative sales volume was 63,033. This is a decrease of 2.5 per cent on the equivalent year to date position in the previous financial year 2017/18.’