House prices in Aberdeen and the surrounding area have held steady over the past three months, while the volume of sales has grown by 21.7 per cent over the quarter, our latest report has found.

The figures, based on data we provided to the Centre for Real Estate Research at the University of Aberdeen, disclose that house prices in Aberdeen City and suburbs increased by 0.1 per cent in Q2 of 2015, while Scotland overall saw an 8.5 per cent increase in prices.

While we saw a 21.7 per cent increase in the number of sales from Q1 to Q2 – typically spring is the most active quarter of the year – we experienced a dip of 9.4 per cent compared to Q2 of 2014.

I had been waiting with interest to see these figures, as this has been a complex period of change for the housing industry in Scotland, and particularly Aberdeen.

There are a variety of background features currently affecting our local market, not just the oil industry news. For one, this is our first report since the introduction of the Land and Building Transaction Tax in April.

As we touched on previously, houses valued at over £350,000 will face a higher level of tax since the introduction of LBTT, and the downturn in volume of sales year on year can partly be attributed to this.

The effect of LBTT on sales will lessen as the market becomes accustomed to the new rates and I expect, over time, the effect to become almost negligible.

We still have a developing background in the oil industry and I expect that factor to exercise a continuing influence on our area for some time yet, before the expected recovery starts. In the interim, however, there are other positive factors in play, offsetting to some extent, the oil industry difficulty, such as good activity in flats, low mortgage rates and availability of mortgage funds. 

In summary, while there are difficulties, the second quarter figures are reasonably reassuring for our local housing market