Property sales down as house prices rise

Property sales in March were down by almost a fifth on the previous year, new figures have shown.

Data from Registers of Scotland shows there were 9,144 residential sales during the month, a fall of 17 per cent compared with March 2016.

March sales were up by just over 60 per cent compared with February, with the spring selling season beginning.

Meanwhile, the latest UK house price index shows the average price of a house in Scotland stood at £143,106 in May, up 3.5 per cent on May in the previous year and an increase of 0.7 percentwhencomparedto the previous month.

Price increases were recorded in 27 out of 32 local authorities in May 2017 compared to the previous year.

The biggest rise was in Perth and Kinross.