Research from the UK’s largest estate agency group revealed that no less than eight of the top 20 best performing property markets are currently located in Scotland.
The information that house prices are increasing isn’t new, but the areas across the UK that are performing the best is. At the beginning of this week, Lomond, a group of leading lettings and sales agents, published their research which analysed the latest market data on transactional volumes.
Experts found that, across Britain, an average of 40,269 homes are currently being sold every month.
However, this isn’t the most shocking statistic to come from the report. The findings show that Scotland tops the table when it comes to the highest level of regional market activity, with an average of 7,261 homes sold each month – accounting for 18% of the national total.
What’s more, further analysis from Lomond shows that Scottish dominance continues at a local authority level. The research outlines that no less than eight of the top 20 best performing markets are located north of the border.
Against this backdrop, Glasgow is currently top dog, where an average of 899 properties are changing hands on a monthly basis. Edinburgh comes in as a close second, with 837 homes sold on average each month.
Outside of Scotland, it’s the Midlands that currently have the best market rates. Birmingham ranks top as it was found 499 homes were sold on average each month. Though we do return to the north in England as Leeds also comes into the top five with, on average, 491 properties sold.
David J Alexander, Lomond’s Scotland CEO, said: ‘The Scottish housing market continues to defy expectations. Not only do prices keep rising, but volumes also remain remarkably high. Normally a greater supply of homes reduces demand resulting in falling prices. In Scotland at the moment this is not the case.
‘What is clear is that there is no single answer to why this is happening but there are definitely parts of the Scottish market which are hot and attracting many more buyers than there are properties.
‘For example, Edinburgh benefits from local buyers, from those across Scotland, throughout the UK, and internationally. Its status as a global destination has never been greater and this is why, despite very high levels of housing supply, demand is even greater resulting in prices continuing to rise. Glasgow also remains an enormously popular city with buyers resulting in higher prices.’
‘The usual situation for the housing market is to have a steady flow of properties for sale resulting in a moderate annual increase in prices over the long term,’ David continued. ‘Clearly the Scottish market is outperforming this with demand and sales both increasing. Whether this is sustainable in the long term is open to question but at present this is a market that is doing extremely well, and this is to be welcomed.’
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