HOUSE sales have hit a peak last seen during the final days of the housing boom in 2008.
Figures released by Registers of Scotland show that the amount of property sold in 2014 rose to a seven year high.
More than £15.3 billion worth of property changed hands in 93,875 sales, an increase of 11.6 per cent compared to the previous year.
Moray was the local authority where the largest annual growth in sales could be found, with a 24.4 per cent increase.
Edinburgh continues to be the area of the country with the largest volume of sales, achieving 11,092 sales in 2014, up 13.7 per cent on 2013.
Aberdeen City and Dumfries and Galloway both recorded a reduction in the number of sales, down 4.0 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.
Kenny Crawford, director of commercial services at ROS, said: "The total value of the residential property market continues to make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy.
"In 2014, the market totalled £15.4 billion, an increase of 16.4 per cent on the previous year.
"The City of Edinburgh property market represented over 16.3 per cent of this figure, sitting at £2.5 billion. This is significantly larger than the next biggest property market, Glasgow, with 8.9 per cent of the market at £1.4 billion."
The average price of a residential property rose in 2014, up 4.3 per cent to £163,563.
The local authority area with the highest average price was East Renfrewshire, where the average price for the year was £228,963, an increase of 5.6% on 2013.
Aberdeenshire and the City of Edinburgh recorded averages of £226,919 and £226,551, increases of 4.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively. Renfrewshire saw the largest percentage increase over the year, up 11.8 per cent compared to 2013 to £129,075.
By contrast, Midlothian saw a 2.1 per cent reduction in average price to £173,855, while prices in South Ayrshire declined 1.6 per cent to £146,823.
The statistics cover all residential sales between £20,000 and £1 million, including those that did not involve a mortgage.
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