Housing market: April price drop but Falkirk market is still buoyant

But the drop does not reverse the longer-term trend, which has seen property prices in the area achieve 4.1% annual growth.

The average Falkirk house price in April was £134,582, Land Registry figures show – that’s a 0.6% decrease on March.

But, over the month, the picture was better than that across Scotland, where prices decreased 4.1%, and Falkirk outperformed the 1.9% drop for the UK as a whole.

Over the last year, the average sale price of property in Falkirk rose by £5,300 – putting the area 30th among Scotland’s 32 local authorities for annual growth.

Owners of terraced houses fared worst in Falkirk in April – they dropped 0.7% in price, to £110,257 on average.

But over the last year, prices rose by 5.2%.

Among other types of property:

Detached: down 0.4% monthly; up 5.1% annually; £252,128 average

Semi-detached: down 0.6% monthly; up 4.4% annually; £146,555 average.

First steps on the property ladder

First-time buyers in Falkirk spent an average of £111,100 on their property – £4,100 more than a year ago, and £21,600 more than in April 2016.

By comparison, former owner-occupiers paid £160,400 on average in April – 44.3% more than first-time buyers.

How do property prices in Falkirk compare?

Buyers paid 16.6% less than the average price in Scotland (£161,000) in April for a property in Falkirk. Across Scotland, property prices are low compared to those across the UK, where the average cost £251,000.

The most expensive properties in Scotland were in Edinburgh – £292,000 on average, and 2.2 times as much as in Falkirk. Edinburgh properties cost 2.8 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 to be found in Kensington and Chelsea, where the average April sale price of £1.1 million could buy 11 properties in East Ayrshire (average £105,000).

Average property price in April