House sales hit £16bn in 2015, figures show

Sales of homes in Scotland hit £16.5 billion in 2015, according to new figures.

Registers of Scotland said a total of 97,701 residential property sales took place across the country in 2015, the highest annual figure since 2008 and a 4.5% increase on 2014.

The Scottish Government body said the £16.5 billion value is an 8.2% increase on the previous year.

Kenny Crawford, Registers of Scotland’s director of commercial services, said: “The total value of the residential property market continues to make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy.

“In 2015, the market totalled £16.5 billion, an increase of 8.2% on the previous year.

“The City of Edinburgh property market represented over 17.2% of this figure, bringing in over £2.8 billion to the Scottish economy.”

Edinburgh had the largest volume of sales in 2015 – 11,991 – up 8.3% on 2014 closely followed by Glasgow, up 12.2% to 11,616.

East Renfrewshire had the largest annual growth in the volume of sales, with a 13.1% increase to 1,861, while Aberdeenshire showed the largest decrease in volumes, down 11.8% to 5,108.