18.7% Increase in Prime Capital Values in London*

18.2% Increase in Rental Values in London*

20.2% Increase in Capital Values in Scotland*

13.8% Increase in Rental Values in Scotland**

2023 recorded an annual increase in rents in Scotland of 12.9%, an increase from 11.9% as recorded for 2022. Conversely, London has decreased from an annual increase in rents of 17% in 2022 to 9% in 2023.

By 2026, property transactions are anticipated to return to c.1.16M per year and will remain at this level until 2028 with only mortgage Buy to Let activity strongly influenced by interest rate and mortgage product availability fluctuations. It is predicted that by 2028 London will begin to outperform the rest of the UK again. Improving affordability coupled with a stronger economic outlook for London than the rest of UK are contributing factors.

Mortgage affordability greatly impacted Scotland’s housing market in 2023. The increase in lending rates of the September 2022 mini budget created unwelcome financial pressures on landlords or prospective buyers of acquisitions up to £300,000, however the prime market of £500,000 property values was less reliant on high level borrowing with a 1% increase in net agreed sales compared to the UK regional average of a -17% drop in net agreed sales. Scotland has performed well due to a flexible attitude by vendors to price changes. Data reports over 84% of successful sales were as a result of price changes. This pressure on pricing is expected to remain in 2024 as a wider range of properties are launched onto the market and an increase in available stock.

*Savills data **CBRE data