Scottish average house prices lifted by 9.7% to a fresh record of £224,035 in the year to July, according to the Walker Fraser Steele Acadata House Price Index.

July’s record was the thirteenth time this has happened in as many months. The rise in July means that average prices are £18,600 higher than the same period a year ago.

This annual rate has slowed from the 10.6% growth in June, but the report says that month was assisted by a near £3,000 fall in prices which occurred twelve months earlier in June 2021, meaning that the base point for measuring June’s growth rate started from a particularly low level.

The monthly climb from June to July this year was £1,725, or 0.8%.

Walker Fraser Steele regional development director Scott Jack says: “There is evidence of a fall in transactions in this month’s data which a number of surveyors in Scotland believe is a regular feature of June and July’s housing market, coinciding as it does with the school holidays, and at a time when, emerging from the pandemic, people have been very keen to get away.”

The survey says 11 of the nation’s 32 local authorities reported record average prices in July, with Argyll and Bute posting the highest annual growth rate at 18.1%, or £228,938.

By comparison, Edinburgh lifted by 7.1% over the same period to £339,478.

The study adds that the pandemic-led ‘race for space’ showed signs of easing in recent months “as people return to the suburbs and semi-detached properties that suit hybrid working.”

Semi-detached properties reported the highest price growth over the year to July, lifting by 10.5%, while detached properties posted the second lowest growth of all types of homes, rising by 9.1%.

However, in the year to March detached properties reported the highest growth in prices, lifting by 11.2%, while semi-detached houses came in third, with 4.6% growth.

Acadata senior housing analyst John Tindale says: “The change in growth rates of the different property types may suggest that the importance of ‘lifestyle-changes’ in the decisions involved in buying a property have shifted over the last few months, as the pandemic becomes less of an influence on people’s lives.

“Or, alternatively it may just reflect a change in the mix of those who have purchased properties during the school holidays. We will have to wait and see what happens when the schools return this autumn, and families contemplate their next move.”