A total of 93,875 sales took place across Scotland in 2014, the highest annual figure since 2008, and an increase of 11.6 per cent compared to the previous year.

Registers of Scotland’s director of commercial services, Kenny Crawford, said: “The total value of the residential property market continues to make a significant contribution to the Scottish economy. In 2014, the market totalled £15.4 billion, an increase of 16.4 per cent on the previous year.

The City of Edinburgh property market represented over 16.3 per cent of this figure, sitting at £2.5 billion. This is significantly larger than the next biggest property market, Glasgow, with 8.9 per cent of the market at £1.4 billion.”

Moray was the local authority to experience the largest annual growth in sales, with a 24.4 per cent increase. The City of Edinburgh continues to be the area of the country with the largest volume of sales, achieving 11,092 sales in 2014, up 13.7 per cent on 2013. Aberdeen City and Dumfries and Galloway both recorded a reduction in the number of sales, down 4.0 per cent and 2.4 per cent respectively.

The average price of a residential property rose in 2014, up 4.3 per cent to £163,563. The local authority area with the highest average price was East Renfrewshire, where the average price for the year was £228,963, an increase of 5.6 per cent on 2013. Aberdeenshire and the City of Edinburgh recorded averages of £226,919 and £226,551, increases of 4.9 per cent and 5.2 per cent respectively.

Renfrewshire saw the largest percentage increase over the year, up 11.8 per cent compared to 2013 to £129,075.

By contrast, Midlothian saw a 2.1 per cent reduction in average price to £173,855, while prices in South Ayrshire declined 1.6 per cent to £146,823.

These statistics cover all residential sales between £20,000 and £1 million, including those that did not involve a mortgage.