The latest version of the UK House Price Index (UK HPI) has been published, which shows house price changes for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in the month of July.

Scottish Price Rises

According to the UK HPI, house prices in Scotland increased by 3.4% on average over the previous year and by 1.3% when compared to the previous month. In July, the average price in Scotland was £143,711.

Looking at the UK as a whole, the figures show that the average house price in July was £216,750, which was an increase of 8.3% over the year and an increase of 0.4% compared to June 2016.

Property Types

Other key statistics relating to Scotland include:

• All property types showed an increase in average price when compared with the previous year, with detached properties showing the biggest increase of 4.4% to £246,985.
• The average price for a new build property in July 2016 was £202,588 - an increase of 11.1% on the previous year, while the average price for an existing resold property was £141,280 - an increase of 3.0% on the previous year.
• The average price for a property purchased by a former owner occupier was £171,764 - an increase of 3.7% on the previous year. The average price for property purchased by a first time buyer was £116,547 - an increase of 3.0% on the previous year.
• The average price for a cash sale was £132,677 - an increase of 3.3% on the previous year, while the average price for property purchased with a mortgage was £148,807 - an increase of 3.4% on the previous year.

There was significant geographical variation in the performance of the housing market across Scotland.

The top five areas for sales volumes were the City of Edinburgh (872 sales), Glasgow City (826 sales), Fife (491 sales), South Lanarkshire (430 sales) and North Lanarkshire (404 sales).

In terms of prices, East Renfrewshire saw the biggest average rise, with prices increasing by 10.7% to £216,382. At the other end of the scale, the City of Aberdeen saw the biggest average fall, with prices dropping by 6.9% to £178,977.

Rest of Great Britain

Looking at other UK countries, the UK HPI shows that England experienced the biggest annual price rise (9.1%), taking the average property value to £232,885. Monthly house prices rose by 0.5% since June 2016.

In Wales, house prices rose annually by 4.0% on average, taking the average property value to £144,828, however on a monthly basis they fell by 1.8% since June 2016.

Sales during May 2016, the most up-to-date Land Registry figures available, show that:

• The number of completed house sales in England fell by 33.5% to 49,795 compared with 74,897 in May 2015.
• The number of completed house sales in Wales fell by 29.6% to 2,596 compared with 3,685 in May 2015.
• The number of completed house sales in London fell by 46% to 5,111 compared with 9,466 in May 2015.

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