Hello and welcome to your Quarterly Property Review 2024: Scotland from Edinburgh Self Storage. We’re the best self storage facility in Edinburgh and The Lothians, should you be reading this blog because you’re between properties and you’re running out of favours from friends and family and they need their spare rooms back. Or you’re about to enter the property market and you need, safe, secure, self storage at attractive rates.
Scotland property market 2023 performance
Let’s kick things off with some 2023 context from letting and estate agency, DJ Alexander Ltd. It says that Scotland’s property market outperformed the rest of the UK in 2023, with a 4.2% increase in house prices, with the UK average falling by £740. It analysed the monthly house price index where the average house price in Scotland went up from £182,742 in January 2023 to £190,341 in December 2023.
East Renfrewshire, where the average house price rose by £28,358, enjoyed the highest hike, followed by East Lothian, rising by £22,318.
Midlothian, East Dunbartonshire, and Edinburgh also saw perceptible increases of £16,396, £16,180, and £13,050 respectively. Three areas unfortunately recorded dips in house price value, the largest being Dumfries and Galloway, where the average house price dropped by £8,354. Argyll and Bute and Moray also saw decreases of £6,759 and £540 respectively.
Quarterly Property Review 2024: Scotland
The word resilient jumps out from what various sources tell us.
Across the UK the average house price fell by 0.2% month on month in March 2024, although there are signs that things are picking up. The average UK house price stood at £261,142, up from £260,420.
Figures from Halifax are sunny-side-up, with Scotland and Wales showing positive growth, +4% annually to £206,087 for Scotland and £219,609 for Wales, while the Nationwide Building Society said that Scottish house prices rose 3.7% in March 2024, despite a falling UK average house price. It says that the average house price in Scotland stood at £179,148 for the three months to March 2024, up 3.7% on a year ago.
Data from property website Zoopla says that while the average UK house price nationally remains largely unchanged month-on-month at £263,900, there have been increases in Scotland and Northern Ireland. Prices are up 2.1% in Scotland (average house price is now £162,900).
It predicts that 2024 will be a year of stable house prices and rising sales volumes UK-wide, with estate agents having an average of almost 30 homes for sale in the first three months of 2024, a return to pre-pandemic levels. This means buyers have more choice and negotiating power, especially where homes just aren’t shifting.
The Zoopla House Price Index says that while the annual rate of UK house price inflation remains negative at -0.3%, Scotland is performing well, up +2.1%, with Glasgow and Edinburgh both appearing in the top ten of positive annual percentage growth in house prices, at numbers 2 and 4 respectively.
The number of UK sales agreed is up 9% compared to the same time last year, plus there are 20% more properties on the market.
Slowdown in Scotland’s housebuilding
There was, however, a slowdown in Scotland’s housebuilding in 2023 according to Scottish Government figures. Quarterly housing data shows 20,992 new-build home completions and 16,017 starts in Scotland last year, while completions decreased by 11% and new starts were down 24% compared to 2022.
Private sector starts, totalling 12,752 homes, were at the lowest level since 2020, when pandemic restrictions were in place and impeding construction work. For affordable homes, there were 6,239 approvals (down 5%), 6,046 starts (down 20%) and 9,680 completions (down 5%) in 2023.
The Scottish Government has a target of 110,000 affordable homes to deliver by 2032.
Sources:
ScotGov
Zoopla
insider.co.uk
