Scottish Housing Market Review: Q2 2025

1. Sales

1.1. Scottish Sales Performance: National

Source: Registers of Scotland

Chart 1.1 shows the volume of transactions for each quarter and the 4-quarter moving average which gives a better indication of the longer-term trend.^[1]

Registers of Scotland statistics show that there were 20,012 residential property sales registered across Scotland in Q1 2025, an annual increase of 7.0%. While lower than the 11.4% increase in Q4 2024, this was the fourth consecutive quarter where the annual change in transactions has been positive.

Across financial year 2024-25 as a whole, the number of residential property sales was 99,872, which was an annual increase of 7.1%. The softening of mortgage interest rates during 2024 (see Section 6) was likely a key factor behind the improving sales position relative to 2023-24, although the level of sales remained lower than in in 2021-22 (110,194) and 2022-23 (101,378), when the release of pent-up demand after covid restrictions were lifted contributed to a spike in sales.

Revenue Scotland data on residential LBTT returns similarly indicates a recent recovery in sales (see Chart 1.2). The number of returns received between January and May 2025 was 37,160, which is 3.6% higher than the corresponding period in 2024 and 8.0% higher than the corresponding period in 2023. However, within this the annual growth rate for the period January to March 2025 was 7.0%, while across the last two months (April to May 2025) annual sales growth was slightly negative (‑0.4%), providing tentative evidence that the increase in sales may be flattening off.

Source: Revenue Scotland

1.2. Scottish Sales Performance: Local Authorities

Table 1.1 sets out the level and annual change in quarterly transactions by local authority. The volume of transactions at local authority level can fluctuate significantly, particularly in smaller local authorities such as the island local authorities. To remove some of this volatility, the change in transactions in the last 4 quarters compared to the preceding 4 quarters is also presented.

Table 1.1 shows that the number of residential property sales has increased in most local authorities in Scotland: in the four quarters to Q1 2025 compared to the preceding four quarters, East Renfrewshire (-6.9%) and Clackmannanshire (-2.6%) were the only local authorities that experienced a fall in sales. The local authority with the highest growth rate was Na h-Eileanan Siar (15.5%), although, as noted above, given the small number of transactions in this local authority changes tend to be volatile. The next highest growth rate was West Lothian (14.6%).

Table 1.1 Local Authority residential property transactions registered

Source: Registers of Scotland