ONE of Scotland's economically deprived areas has emerged as one of the very few bright spots for house sales, as new figures show the national property market remaining static.
West Dunbartonshire, one of the local authority areas with most deprivation indicators, has recorded the highest percentage rise in the number of homes sold compared with 12 months ago.
A total of 288 properties were sold in the final three months of 2011, an increase of almost 30%.
The area, home to the towns of Dumbarton and Clydebank, also recorded one of the highest rises in property prices – at 6% – but the average West Dunbartonshire home still costs almost half of its equivalent in Edinburgh, at £122,000.
While the capital remained the largest market, with sales totalling £470 million for the quarter, West Dunbartonshire showed the highest percentage rise, with the value of sales increasing by 36.3% compared with the previous year, coming to just over £35m.
According to Government figures, the average price of a residential property in Scotland fell by 0.5% in the third quarter of financial year 2011/12 compared with the same period the previous year. The average price of a residential property now stands at £157,174.
The slight drop in property values is, however, offset by an equally small rise in the number of homes sold, with 19,828 properties changing hands across last October, November and December, an increase of 0.2%.
Registers of Scotland said detached homes saw the biggest increase in sales, rising by 4.5% year-on-year. However, sales of flats dropped by 6.3%.
Prices dropped by 0.4% in Glasgow, while Inverclyde saw the biggest fall – 12% – compared with 2010. East Dunbartonshire had a 28% rise in the number of properties changing hands.
Dundee had the largest per-centage fall in the number of sales, with a decrease of 15.3%, while Edinburgh recorded the highest sales volume with 2081, an increase of 3.6%.
Dr John Boyle, head of research at estate agency Rettie & Co, said: "Despite gloomy forecasts at the start of 2011 predicting significant price falls, we correctly anticipated the market would be flat overall as there is more of an incentive for people to sit tight where they are, given the economic uncertainty."
Kenny Crawford, Registers of Scotland's director of commercial services, said: "The strength of sales in the house market is having a levelling effect on the market and this is keeping the changes to Scotland's property averages at under 1%."
The total value of sales across Scotland registered in the quarter fell by 0.3% to £3.1 billion.
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