The Scottish housing market has been described as "quiet" at the end of 2024 by Walker Fraser Steele, but the chartered surveyor said that outlook in Scotland remains "positive".

In November, the average Scottish house price stood at £223,094, which is a month-on-month decrease of 0.6%.

Although this figure increased by 0.8% annually, this was the lowest increase since February.

In the HPI, Walker Fraser Steele said: "Scotland’s housing market has experienced a somewhat unusual recovery in 2024. While house prices nationally have hit fresh record highs on several occasions, the overall pace of recovery of house prices in this country has been modest, impacted by earlier cost-of-living pressures and higher mortgages rates on household budgets."

In terms of regions, 11 local authorities recorded rising prices in November, while 21 reported price falls.

Angus was the only local authority to set a new market high, reaching £198,973.

Walker Fraser Steele found that a number of authorities have hit fresh peaks over 2024 and remain within touching distance of them now, whilst Perth and Kinross, where average prices are more than £254,000. This is close to topping the previous high set in 2022.

It estimated that there were about 8,800 sales in the month, which is a year-on-year increase of around 10%.

Furthermore, sales activity in fact outpaced that of a year earlier of the 11 months of 2024 for which the firm has data, without cumulative sales for the January-November period tracking 6% above the same period of 2023.

The chartered surveyor concluded: "Despite the somewhat lacklustre year for the housing market it was much better than had been expected by the Scottish Fiscal Commission who had forecast a fall in prices, somewhat akin to many analysts’ views of what might happen south of the border.

"The RICS housing market survey for Scotland in November was altogether quite positive with agreed sales higher and price and sales expectations up. The general positivity no doubt helped influence the Commission which revised its price forecasts up for future years, with year-on-year growth expected through to 2028/29, the end of their forecast.

"Their expectations are not dissimilar to those of other analysts, suggesting the market in Scotland will move ahead in 2025 rather more strongly than it has in 2024, even though we still have one month to report on in 2024."

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