A (short) history of house prices in Scotland

The average house price in Scotland is now £148,024, according to the latest figures from Lloyds TSB Scotland which estimates Scottish house purchases during the first three months of 2012 were up 8.6% on the same period of 2011.

“The Scottish housing market has adjusted to the recession with a halving of sales and a period of volatile price movement,” said Donald MacRae, chief economist, Lloyds TSB Scotland. “Average house prices are now 89% of their peak of three and three quarter years ago. There is no sign of a return to the levels of prices and transactions of 2007 but equally no precipitous falls in either house sales or house prices. The Scottish housing market remains in the doldrums.”

Looking back on the last 60 years since the Queen’s coronation, the Bank of Scotland has put together an interesting analysis of some of the changes in the Scottish housing market

House Prices
* House prices in Scotland have risen by an average of 91% in real terms over the past 40 years
* The biggest increase was in the 2000s with a real rise of 36% between 2001 and 2011

Housebuilding
* More than 1.6 million homes have been built in Scotland in the past 60 years
* The number of houses built each year has fallen by 24% since 1951, from 22,930 to an estimated 17,500 in 2011.

Housing tenure and households
* Home ownership has more than doubled over the past 40 years from 31% of the housing stock in Scotland in 1971 to 64% in 2010
* The size of the private rented sector in 2010 (12%) was lower than in 1971 (18%)

“The Scottish housing market has undergone some extraordinary changes since the Queen’s coronation,” said
Nitesh Patel, housing economist at Bank of Scotland, “reflecting the changing way we live our lives. Today, the typical household in Scotland is very different following the substantial shift towards owner-occupation with the majority of households now living in their own homes rather than renting.”

Useful web sites for more information

• Independent Property Search Engine
• Independent House & Home section

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