Fife house prices show slight drop, but long term trend is up

The average Fife house price in December was £173,538, Land Registry figures show – a 0.3% decrease on November. Over the month, the picture was different to that across Scotland, where prices decreased 0.9%, but Fife was lower than the 0.1% rise for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property went up by £2,500, putting the area 15th among Scotland’s 32 local authorities.

First-time buyers spent an average of £137,800 – £1,300 more than a year ago, and £29,000 more than in December 2018. By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £208,100 in December – 51% more than first-time buyers.

Owners of terraced houses saw the biggest fall in property prices. They dropped 0.7% in price, to £141,508 on average, but over the last year, prices rose by 0.4%. Detached properties were up 0.1% monthly; 3.1% annually to an average of £326,540; semi-detached: up 0.1% monthly; up 2.9% annually; £185,880 average; flats were down 0.5% monthly; up 0.4% annually; £102,144 average

Buyers paid 8.8% less than the average price in Scotland of £190,000 where property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost is £285,000.

The figures showed the most expensive properties in Scotland were in Edinburgh – £338,000 on average, and 1.9 times the price as in Fife.