FIRST-time buyers have helped to drive a rise in the number of homes changing hands this year, according to new data.

The number getting their foot on the property ladder rose year on year by 17% in the first eight months of 2014, boosting the market for flats in Scotland.

First-time buyers were involved in 60,000 property transactions, with flats becoming the most popular property type on the market.

Despite the surge, prices fell slightly last month as activity cooled in the face of the looming independence referendum, the first drop since August 2013.

The average cost of a property dipped 0.2% compared to July, with falls in more than half of local authority areas across the country, including South Lanarkshire, East Dunbartonshire, Fife, Edinburgh and Aberdeenshire.

However, prices were up 5.7% on the same period last year, according to the LSL Property Services/Acadata Scotland House Price Index for August.

Gordon Fowlis, regional managing director of Your Move estate agents, said: "The powerful spell of growth cast over the Scottish property market was broken in August, as house prices fell for the first time in a year.

"At a time when property values across the rest of the UK were continuing to grow, Scotland moved against the grain and average house prices dropped across more than half the country.

"Sales in August were 8% below the typical seasonal trend, as sellers shirked the market and buyers postponed purchase decisions until the (independence referendum) dust settled. This trend appears more acute at the top tiers of the market, where there were bigger investments at stake, and there was an 11 per cent drop in the number of homes sold across Scotland for more than £1 million between July and August."

Mr Fowlis added: "Flats are changing hands more furiously than any other property type on the market, as a wave of new buyers with more modest budgets clamber on the housing ladder."

Faisal Choudhry, associate director and head of Scottish Research Residential Research at estate agent Savills, added: "I agree first-time buyers have been the mainstay of the property market recently.

"Looking at mortgage lending, first-time buyers made up 26 per cent of the successful applications in the second quarter of 2014, more than double the figure of the previous year. With access to the Government's Help To Buy scheme and improved mortgage lending, first-time buyers have been one of the main beneficiaries of the last few years."

At the top end of the market, 15 properties sold for more than £1m in August, including nine in Edinburgh, two in Glasgow and one in Aberdeen.

Orkney saw the biggest monthly rise in prices in August, with a 6.5 per cent increase, while on the mainland East Renfrewshire led the field with a 4.4 per cent boost - and two properties in the area sold in August for £1.6m and £1.4m.

On an annual basis, prices have risen in 27 of the 32 local authority areas, three less than last month.

The area with the highest increase in average house prices over the year was Renfrewshire, where prices have risen 17 per cent to £130,456. Detached homes in the county have seen an average price rise of £40,000 over the year.

Dr Peter Williams, housing market specialist and chairman of Acadata, said the impact of the referendum may be felt in the autumn months following the August figures.

He said: "Although there is evidence transactions were 8 per cent below the seasonal norm, which represents approximately 700 sales, the market in August 2014 was still robust, with purchases being 7 per cent ahead of August last year.

"We can perhaps expect a similar slippage in transactions in September as there is a time lag between a purchaser deciding to buy, and that transaction formally taking place. So it will be interesting to observe the number of trans­actions in October and to judge how the outcome of the referendum has influenced the housing market."