Home prices in Scotland increased 7.3% last year, bumping up property values by £10,000 (US$14,096), according to the latest U.K. House Price Index Tuesday.
The average house price in the country now stands at £148,512 (US$209,348) and is inching toward the highest point on record, according to the index—from the HM Land Registry and Registers of Scotland, among other U.K. government statistics agencies—which analyzed property prices in the 12 months to January.
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The current record price stands just a little higher at £148,573 (US$209,434), reached in the year to November 2017, according to the government's data.
The level of increase has exceeded the rest of the U.K., where property values rose 4.9% to an average £225,621 (US$318,044) in the same time.
"Average prices have been steadily increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year," said Janet Egdell, operations director and accountable officer for Registers of Scotland, in the report, which did not break out values for luxury property.
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Values saw the biggest leap in Orkney, an archipelago off the northeastern coast of Scotland, where values soared 23.6% to £144,214 (US$203,289). That was followed by East Lothian and West Lothian, areas that surround Edinburgh, where average prices increased by 13.9% to £219,393 (US$309,265) and 13.3% to £156,149 (US$220,113) respectively.
Edinburgh, where average prices are the highest in Scotland at £251,522 (US$354,555), had an 11.1% increase, according to the index.
The average price in January 2018 for a property purchased by a first-time buyer increased 6.5% from the same month in the previous year, up to £119,174 (US$167,992), according to the report. The average price for a property purchased by a non-first-time buyer was £179,391 (US$252,876), an increase of 8.3%.