THE number of homes sold in Scotland in the first five months of the year has risen by 11% compared to last year, showing signs of recovery in the housing market, according to a new report.
The average cost of a house in Scotland stood at £146,073 in May, down almost £200 on the previous month's figure.
Experts said the market was faring well under a "stuttering" economy, but issued a note of caution on mortgages, saying lending to buyers with small deposits has been suppressed.
The findings in the latest LSL/Acad Scotland house price index revealed that despite prices being flat, they are higher than at the beginning of 2012.
The study revealed the number of transactions carried out from January to May this year was up 11% on the same five months last year, although the figure was still significantly down on early 2007 levels.
Dr Peter Williams, chairman of Acadametrics, said: "Over the last year we have seen six months in which prices have fallen, five months in which they have risen and one month when prices remained static.
"On an annual basis prices are 0.6% lower than May 2011.
"Although house prices in Scotland as a whole show relatively little movement, we find that the change in price at the more local level can be far more dramatic."
Meanwhile, figures from the Office for National Statistics showed prices have risen in England and Wales over the last year but have fallen in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The report said year-on-year prices fell by 1% in Scotland to an average of £177,000.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article