Scottish Property Market In Recovery (Update)

New figures released by the Land Registry yesterday contrasted with those released earlier in the week, by mortgage lenders.

According to the latest release from the Land Registry index, UK house prices were 2.1% higher in January than in December, and 5.2% higher than in January 2008. The organisation said this is the second consecutive month that house prices have maintained a year-on-year increase, and the eighth consecutive month on month increase.

The Land Registry considers this to be a sure indication that house prices are rising, despite some areas recovering slower than others.

The indices of the Land Registry and the Government (via the Department for Communities and Local Government) were much slower to start showing monthly increases and thus far have only recorded slight monthly increases with a couple of exceptions.

However, this data is at odds with reports released by Nationwide and Halifax earlier this month.

The Nationwide and Halifax are now showing price rises as slowing, with Nationwide recently releasing data showing a fall of 1.5% between January and February. This is in stark contrast with the Land Registry's which show one of its biggest ever growths. It will be interesting to see if DCLG's prices for January echo these findings.

While the indices of the DCLG and Land Registry are thought to be more accurate, because they are formed from on actual sales, rather than mortgage applications like those ran by two of the UK's largest lenders. Conversely, mortgage applications have been declining this year, which would support the slowing of price growth found by the lenders.

As such, this time of year normally shows growth in the property market as a whole, as demand and supply increase. In light of the wider economic picture and planned cutbacks from the government,it is difficult to say which trend will prevail.

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Land Registry: View the latest statistical release (PDF 195KB)