Glasgow and Edinburgh

During Autumn and Winter many property commentators will reflect on the year and assess how the market has performed in each region. Recently, property portal Zoopla released figures showing that the property market saw some real success in Scotland. In fact, according to Zoopla, homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh take around half the time to sell compared to the rest of the UK, demonstrating a strong market with high demand in those areas. Homes in Glasgow and Edinburgh homes took on average of six weeks to sell compared to twice that across the whole of the UK.

Compared to the rest of the UK sellers in Glasgow and Edinburgh were less likely to need to drop their asking prices throughout the marketing process and expecting to achieve up to 10% above the asking price especially in areas where top performing schooling was in high demand. This compares to accepting offers 3.8% or £9,800 less than the initial asking price, the average across the rest of the country.

Edinburgh had the fastest moving market in the whole of the UK during last year, with homes taking just 22 days to sell on average, with Glasgow in second place at an average of 27 days. This compares to 47 days throughout the rest of the UK.

The West Midlands was third fastest in the UK with 38 days followed by the East Midlands and Yorkshire and Humber with 40 and 46 days respectively. North East England was  54 days and Aberdeen was the slowest market in the country with homes taking 15 weeks to sell and seeing forced discounts of 9.4% as a result.

London saw a slowdown with an average selling time of 54 days. Experts recognise it will take time for the London and South East markets to stabilise and see prices start to reflect this and what buyers are willing to pay and are able to afford.

Scotland on the other hand remains affordable in many areas and this is set to continue into 2020 especially with the announcement of the First Home Fund.