Scotland Transactions analysis
In February 2019, the latest month for which the official ONS statistics are published, transactions in Scotland totalled 5,387 properties. This was an 18% fall on the previous month, against a seasonal decrease of 12% (based on the last seven years data, excluding 2016), so sales volumes were 6% below that which would be normally expected. The February 2019 total was however level pegging with that of the previous year. Given that January 2019 transactions started 8% ahead of the same month in 2018, and that sales volumes in February 2019 were on par with the previous year, we should not be surprised that for the first two months of the year 2019 sales volumes are 4% ahead of 2018. Looking at the first two months of the year in the graph, we can see a high degree of unanimity in the level of transactions over the last six years – in general, it is the summer months from May to September in which the main differences between the years can be observed.
