Midlothian house prices held steady in February

The lack of movement maintains the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 5.1 per cent annual growth.

The average Midlothian house price in February was £196,666, Land Registry figures show – largely unchanged from January.

Over the month, the picture was better than that across Scotland where prices decreased 1.7 per cent.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Midlothian rose by £9,500 – putting it 26th among Scotland’s 32 local authorities for annual growth. The best annual growth was in the Shetland Islands, where property prices increased on average by 17.3 per cent , to £174,000.

At the other end of the scale, properties in Aberdeen gained 0.7 per cent in value, giving an average price of £143,000.

First-time buyers in Midlothian spent an average of £164,100 on their property – £7,900 more than a year ago, and £29,500 more than in January 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £229,500 on average in February – 39.8 per cent more than first-time buyers.

Buyers paid 21.8 per cent more than the average price in Scotland (£162,000) in February for a property in Midlothian. Across Scotland, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £250,000.

The most expensive properties in Scotland were in Edinburgh – £281,000 on average, and 1.4 times as much as in Midlothian. Edinburgh properties cost 2.7 times as much as homes in East Ayrshire (£105,000 average), at the other end of the scale.

The highest property prices across the UK were in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average February sale price of £1.2 million could buy 13 properties in Hyndburn (average £92,000).