Average selling prices rose by 5.8% year-on-year, reaching £286,017, continuing the strong patterns of activity seen throughout the second half of 2024.

Nearly all of the areas covered by ESPC saw healthy boosts in their average selling prices. West Fife & Kinross saw average selling prices rise by 17.5% year-on-year to £229,004; its major city, Dunfermline, also saw property prices rise by 29.3% to £230,233, indicating a continuation of the strong demand for this location recorded in recent months.

However, Dunfermline remained home to the most affordable property type on the market, with one-bedroom flats in the city selling for £96,475 on average. The Borders also saw a significant rise in average property prices, with an 8.4% increase taking the average to £219,067.

In Edinburgh, the North West of the city reported average property prices rising 21.9% annually to £316,219, while the city centre rose 15.1% to £343,793. With both areas offering access to the catchment areas for popular state schooling, ESPC speculates whether the recent VAT hike for private schools is behind the rise in property prices in these areas.

Overall, Edinburgh’s Grange was the most expensive neighbourhood in which to purchase a property, with homes selling for £530,492 on average. By contrast, Jedburgh in the Borders offered the best affordability, with an average property price tag of £112,773.

Buyers continued to pay less of a premium, but some areas saw high demand

Property sales throughout October-December continued to report a decline in the amount of the Home Report valuation achieved at sale, with homes attaining 101.9% of their valuation figure on average. However, this is just 0.4 percentage points lower than the same time last year, showing a slowing in the decline. Similarly, 74.6% of homes on the market sold for at least their Home Report valuation, which is just 1 percentage point down on October-December 2023.

Most areas throughout Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders saw a dip in the amount of the Home Report valuation paid by buyers, which is to be expected given that this has been the case for several months now.

The Borders offered the best opportunity to buy a property for less than its Home Report valuation, with homes achieving 98.9% of this figure on average (which is 1.3 percentage points down on the same time last year). East Fife experienced the largest decline, with buyers paying 99.3% of the Home Report valuation – a 3.8 percentage point decrease on last year.

West Fife & Kinross continued its popular streak, with buyers paying the highest premium to live in this region, at 103.8% (2.9 percentage points more than October-December 2023).

In Edinburgh buyers paid the highest premium to own a property in the trendy East of the city, with successful bids reaching an average of 104.1% of the Home Report valuation. One-bedroom flats around Leith Walk, Easter Road, Pilrig and Bonnington commanded an especially high premium of 105.4% (up 3.7 percentage points annually), hinting at very high demand from first-time buyers keen to live in this hipster hotspot.

Also in the East of the city, the family-friendly suburb of Willowbrae boasted the strongest level of demand, with buyers paying the highest premium of any ESPC location at 108.6% of the Home Report valuation on average. With this area’s proximity to two popular secondary schools, again potentially indicating the impact of families choosing to relocate their children’s schooling to state options, thus increasing the competitive nature of buying a home in these already popular neighbourhoods.

Sales and insertions were both on the rise

The property market across Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders saw a substantial amount of activity during the ‘typically quieter’ months of October-December, with significant increases in the volumes of both property listings and property sales.

The level of new properties coming onto the market rose by 4.4% year-on-year, indicating that homeowners still felt high confidence in the market and in their property’s potential coming into the later autumn and winter months. This is supported by the number of properties listed using the ‘offers over’ marketing method; 82% of homeowners chose to use this method rather than listing their property for a fixed price. This is 8.4 percentage points higher than October-December 2023, demonstrating clear confidence from sellers.

Dunfermline offered the highest volumes of property listings (with levels up 31.3% on last year), followed by Leith.

Sales volumes also saw a significant year-on-year uptick, rising 25.1%. Supporting the idea that Dunfermline is currently riding a wave of popularity, the city boasted the highest volume of property sales across the three-month period. It was closely followed by Edinburgh’s Leith and Corstorphine, which matched like-for-like in terms of the number of properties sold. However, interestingly, Corstorphine’s property sales were significantly higher year-on-year during this time, hinting at rocketing demand for homes in this area – again, a neighbourhood which is close to several renowned secondary schools.

Once again, two-bedroom flats in Leith were the top sellers, with sales volumes up 35.6% on the same time last year. In second place were one-bedroom flats in Leith, showing that this part of the Capital shows no sign of waning in its popularity with younger buyers and property investors. In third place was one-bedroom flats in the increasingly popular Gorgie, with volumes 56.5% higher than they were during October-December 2023.

Properties sold at a faster rate than in autumn/winter 2023

The median selling time of property was 21 days during October-December, which is one day faster than during the same time in 2023. 

The quickest-selling area was West Fife & Kinross, where homes were snapped up in only 14 days – this is eight days faster than the median time recorded for the area in October-December 2023.

By contrast, the slowest-selling region was East Fife, where homes took a median time of 42 days to go under offer. This is eight days slower than the same time last year.

Two-bedroom houses in Dunfermline and three-bedroom houses in Kelso were the fastest-selling property types, typically being snapped up in just nine days – this is four days and two days quicker respectively when compared to the same time last year.

Demand in the market saw a rise in the number of closing dates set, with 22.5% of properties for sale setting a closing date compared to 19.7% in October-December 2023. Willowbrae boasted the highest level of demand from buyers, with 50% of properties for sale in this neighbourhood going to a closing date.

Paul Hilton, CEO of ESPC, commented: “The final three months of 2024 saw the year end on a positive note for the housing market, with incredibly healthy levels of activity across the board.

“We’ve seen everything from rising property prices to decreasing sales times, and generous increases in the volumes of both property listings and property sales – all key indicators of a buoyant market.

“Once again, Dunfermline and the East of Edinburgh both appear to offer the strongest appeal for buyers, with extremely active markets in both of these locations. It’s also especially interesting to note the increasing property prices and demand for homes in neighbourhoods of Edinburgh that offer access to highly-rated state schooling; we did predict that this may be the case in 2025 but it appears we may be seeing this beginning already, with families keen to secure homes close to good state schooling ahead of private school VAT increases coming into force.”