The value of residential property sales in Scotland rose 8.2% to more than £16.5 billion in 2015, according to Registers of Scotland (RoS).

A total of 97,701 sales took place across Scotland in 2015, the highest since 2008, and an increase of 4.5% on the previous year.

Edinburgh had the highest volume, with 11,991 sales in 2015, up 8.3% on 2014.

This was closely followed by Glasgow, up 12.2% to 11,616. East Renfrewshire had the largest annual growth in volume, with a 13.1% increase to 1,861.

Aberdeenshire saw the largest decrease in volume, down 11.8% to 5,108.

The average price of a residential property in Scotland rose 3.6% to £169,402.

The highest average price was in Edinburgh, up 4.9% to £238,036.

The highest annual change in average price was in West Lothian, rising 9.1% to £161,014 in 2015.

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

“In 2015, the market totaled £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.

“This is significantly larger than the next biggest property market, Glasgow, with 9.8% of the market at £1.6 billion.”

While the average price for all property types increased in 2015, semi-detached houses showed the largest rise in price, up 3.4% to £157,995.

Detached properties had the highest average price at £249,921.

Flats had the highest volume share, claiming 36.2% of the total market.

The lowest share of the market was semi-detached houses, with 17,974 transactions accounting for 18.4% of the market.

These statistics cover all residential sales between £20,000 and £1 million, including those that did not involve a mortgage.