Scots housing market tops £161bn in last 10 years

The sixth annual Registers of Scotland’s Property Market Report shows that the total value of the residential sales market in Scotland from 2007-08 to 2017-18 was £161.3 billion.

Registers of Scotland’s business development and information director Kenny Crawford said: “The Scottish property market is a significant component of the Scottish economy.

“In 2017-18, the total value of residential sales alone was £17.9 billion, an increase of 7.8 per cent when compared with 2016-17.

“We’ve also seen an increase in average house prices, up 13.2 per cent when comparing 2017-18 with 2007-08.

“Overall, house prices remained relatively stable until 2012-13, but have been generally increasing since then.

“The volume of residential sales in 2017-18, at 102,430, remains substantially lower than the 149,145 sales recorded in the pre-financial crisis period in 2007-08.

“However volumes in 2017-18 were the highest since 2007-08 and have been increasing year on year from the recent low of 70,507 in 2011-12.”

Key findings revealed in the report include:

  • new-build property sales accounting for 11.7% of the all-Scotland sales in 2017-18, with a total of 11,969 sales.
  • the proportion of residential sales being registered with a mortgage fell from 84.5% in 2007-08 to 68.3% in 2016-17.