The housing market north of the border is holding up well despite economic uncertainty, according to Scottish property website ESPC, with a year-on-year rise in selling prices of over 25% recorded in some areas.

The latest data from ESPC shows that during September to November 2022, the average selling price of property across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife, and the Borders rose 8.8% year-on-year to £294,419. The data also shows listings in those areas over the three-month period were up 0.4%.

The average selling price for homes in East Fife was £319,633, an increase of 25.2% annually, while property in West Lothian had an average selling price of £251,735, up 13.3% year-on-year. The City of Edinburgh saw average property selling prices rise 7.8% annually to £308,868.

However, in terms of property sales, volumes across the area reduced by 7.1% annually. Corstorphine recorded the highest volumes of property sales from the data, closely followed by Leith and Dunfermline.

The latest ESPC figures also showed Home Report valuations continue to be exceeded, although at a lower rate than last year.
From 1 September to 30 November 2022, properties attained an average of 106.9% of their Home Report valuations at sale – 0.2 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

East Lothian properties attained the most over Home Report valuation, with properties achieving 109.5% of their valuations on average – 1.5% lower year-on-year. This was followed by East Fife and Midlothian where the percentage of Home Report valuation attained was 108.1% and 107.2% (decreases of 1.7% and 0.2% respectively).

In Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders, the median time for properties to go under offer was 16 days – one day slower than the previous year but still quicker than the pre-Covid norm. Homes went under offer the fastest in West Fife and Kinross, in a median time of 12 days (one day slower annually). Meanwhile, properties in East Lothian also performed strongly, with a median time of 13 days for an offer to be accepted.

Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, commented: “There were significant changes to the financial markets and politically in the period of September-November 2022. Despite this, activity levels for this time of year are very close to those seen in 2019, which was really the last year of normality before the pandemic, so this should provide some reassurance to buyers that the market is continuing to perform well despite speculation to the contrary.”