Fife house prices: Flat owners see biggest drop according to latest figures

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 13.1% annual growth.

The average Fife house price in March was £166,962, Land Registry figures show – a 0.1% decrease on February.

Over the month, the picture was similar to that across Scotland, where prices remained static, and Fife underperformed compared to the 0.3% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in the region rose by £19,000 – putting the area 11th among Scotland’s 32 local authorities with price data for annual growth.

Owners of flats fared worst in March.

They dropped 0.6% in price, to £99,085 on average.

But over the last year, prices rose by 9%.

Detached properties in Fife were up 0.2% monthly; up 17.6% annually; £314,585 average

Semi-detached: up 0.3% monthly; up 14.2% annually; £176,060 average

Terraced: down 0.1% monthly; up 11.8% annually; £135,662 average

First-time buyers in Fife spent an average of £133,000 on their property – £14,000 more than a year ago..

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £200,000 on average in March – 50.8% more than first-time buyers.

Fife buyers paid 8% less than the average price in Scotland (£181,000) in March.

The most expensive properties in Scotland were in Edinburgh – £323,000 on average, and 1.9 times as much as more than in Fife.

Factfile

Average property price in March

Fife: £166,962

Scotland: £181,415

UK: £278,436

Annual growth to March

Fife: +13.1%

Scotland: +8%

UK: +9.8%

Best and worst annual growth in Scotland

Falkirk: +19.2%

Aberdeen: +0.1%