Property portal Rightmove revealed the average time to secure a buyer in Scotland has dropped from 66 days to 41 days in the last five years. While London and the South of England traditionally drove the property market in the UK, London’s average has nearly doubled from 36 days in 2014 to 60 days this year, putting London back to figures not seen since 2011.

The average annual price of a home in Scotland has risen 2.2 per cent in the last year to £178,991, according to official data from the Registers of Scotland (RoS). This was a 13.6 per cent increase compared with 2013/14 and a 15.9 per cent rise on figures from a decade ago. Since the start of the RoS house price data in 2003/04, the highest quarterly average price was recorded in Q3 of 2018/19 at £181,862.

Following a surge of sale transactions in the northeast and East Lothian, the Scottish housing market had collective sales of £3.4 billion during January-March 2019; the highest figure recorded since the credit crunch in 2008, according to Aberdein Considine’s Property Monitor report.

According to the latest data from the Landbay rental index, Scotland recorded the highest annual rental growth across the UK at 1.78 per cent of the yer to end April 2019, and the best monthly increase of 0.15 per cent to £750. This compares with the national average, which grew just 0.96 per cent in the year, and 0.07 per cent month on month to £1,218.

First-time buyers are to be offered loans of up to £25,000 to help those trying to get on the property ladder to pay the deposits on their first property, Nicola Sturgeon announced at the SNP conference this month.