A report in The Scotsman looks at house prices in Scotland, focusing on the 13 areas where prices are decreasing more quickly.
The report shows that in 2022, a lot of areas saw a sharp rise in house prices, with 173 locations showing an average price increase of 20% or more compared to the previous year. Even more striking, 59 of these areas saw prices climb by at least 30%.
The areas referred to in the statistics are known as “intermediate zones”, each consisting of 2,500 to 6,000 households. When house prices surge in these zones, it usually signifies that the area is becoming more popular or desirable.
Scotland-wide, 74% of these zones saw an uptick in average house prices between 2021 and 2022, but around a quarter of them witnessed a drop in prices, with the remaining areas remaining stable.
The article then spotlights some of the areas that had the most dramatic price decreases, based on median sold prices. The top four are:
- Kirkcaldy Linktown & Seafield (in Fife) – Average property price dropped from £199,000 in 2021 to £86,000 in 2022, a decrease of 56.8%.
- Kirkintilloch West (in East Dunbartonshire) – Average property price fell from £202,000 in 2021 to £130,000 in 2022, down by 35.6%.
- Port Glasgow Mid, East and Central (in Inverclyde) – Average property price decreased from £75,000 in 2021 to £50,000 in 2022, a drop of 33.3%.
- Dunblane East (in Stirling) – Average property price fell from £348,995 in 2021 to £241,914 in 2022, down by 30.7%.
Bear in mind, though, that these figures don’t adjust for different types of housing sold in various areas, and they can be affected by factors like new housing developments coming onto the market. So, a drop in average prices doesn’t necessarily mean that the value of every individual property in the area has gone down. It might just reflect a change in the kinds of properties being sold.