Early 2021 saw a similar start to 2020, the country was in lockdown, and there was still limited movement restrictions between regional borders. However, in contrast to 2020, the property market remained open for home movers. The earlier months of the year showed that demand for property in the Highlands was strong, and the restrictions hadn’t dampened the desire to move home. The rest of the year continued to hold this demand for the Highland market.

On the mortgage front, the First Home Fund opened in the first half of 2021, a government initiative to help first-time buyers with up to £25,000 buy a property. Unfortunately, applications for this scheme took up the allocated funding in just five days. HSPC Mortgage Consultant, Norman Fell, reviews, “funding for the First Home Fund Scheme was allocated within a few days of the Scheme going live. This was in comparison to the previous year where the scheme was live for approximately six months. The Shared Equity LIFT Scheme was extremely busy in 2021 with many first time buyer applications, similarly second time buyers in certain circumstances were able to use the scheme again.”   

“With mortgage rates at an all time low last year we maintained our annual review process by keeping our existing clients updated to new rates on offer as their existing deals were nearing an end. This was greatly appreciated by all of our clients as part of the service offered by HSPC Mortgage Services. “ 

The biggest challenge for the Highland property market in 2021 was the lack of available stock for house hunters.  Bernadette Walker, manager of HSPC, commented, “Going into 2021 from an exceptionally busy end to 2020 saw no change in the level of demand for property in the Highlands. HSPC had similar high volumes of new property insertions throughout 2021 as it did in 2020; however, the demand from buyers saw many properties under offer quickly, leaving available property stock low.”

“The property type that sold in the highest volume was detached bungalows with detached villas a close second, indicating that space is still a popular factor when moving home. Flats saw the biggest surge in sold volume for 2021, which could suggest that the desire to live in urban spaces was starting to gain interest again.”

“Average property prices in the Highlands increased by 9% in 2020 with a further 4% increase recorded for 2021, which shows a 13% increase in property prices in the last two years.”

HSPC Key Trends 2021

•The average house price for Highland properties increased by 4%, from £196,044 in 2020 to £203,545 in 2021.

•HSPC sold 11% more properties in 2021 compared to 2020.

•The property type with the highest number sold was detached bungalows. The average price was £254,046, a 14% price increase against 2020.

•Terraced houses saw the most significant price increase from £142,337 in 2020 to £174,644 in 2021; a 23% increase due to lower quantities of this property type sold in the year.

•Our highest-priced property type was on average £312,913 for a detached villa. 

•Flats saw the most significant increase in volumes sold, with 59% more sold in 2021 compared to 2020 with an average price of £129,188.

•April to June was our busiest quarter for properties coming on to the market, but our most active quarter for properties sold was from July to September. Any new property stock was quickly depleted.

•New property added to the market struggled to keep up with demand throughout the year, leaving just over half of property stock active by the end of 2021 compared to the start of the year.

•April to June saw our busiest quarter for viewing requests and enquiries with an 87% increase on the previous quarter. Property email alerts increased by approximately 30% month on month throughout the year.

•HSPC’s average sold price versus average asking price was +4.3% for 2021, with November being our most successful month, averaging +8.3% sold versus asking price. 

•Traffic to our website increased by 20% in 2021 compared to 2020.

•March was a record-breaking month for hspc.co.uk, with over 100,000 unique visitors, and it had over 208,000 active sessions.

•We also attracted our largest ever online audience with over 7.2 million views for the year.

Browse our properties at hspc.co.uk 

Call 01463 231173, email [email protected] or private message us on our social media. For mortgage advice, call 01463 231232 or email [email protected].