Prospects for 2026 as average house price in Edinburgh jumps to £355,000

Estate agency and legal outfit Lindsays said its average sale price in the capital during 2025 was £354,522 - up 2.6 per cent on the previous 12 months.

The firm’s property market experts expect 2026 to be another year of similar price increases, with demand from homebuyers continuing to outstrip supply across the city. The Edinburgh-headquartered practice believes that the current city market remains strong, with properties generally selling at about their home report valuation level.

Maurice Allan, managing director of residential property at Lindsays, said: “There’s a good balance to the market right now. There’s no reason to suspect that’s going to change.

“The big issue that we always have in Edinburgh is lack of supply. There are always people moving here - it’s a place people want to be - but there are very few places to build new homes within the city itself. That creates a very particular dynamic to the local market.

“We expect 2026 to be much in line with the past 12 months,” he added. “There are certainly no signs of a downturn.

“A market without extremes is always the healthiest. We want to see fluidity in the market, where it’s relatively easy to buy and relatively easy to sell. That’s what we have right now.”

The firm reported a busy end to the market in 2025, with a “good number of prospects in the pipeline” moving into 2026. Lindsays also operates an estate agency in Dundee, where its average house price sale during 2025 was £217,751.

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Chris Todd, partner and head of residential property at Lindsays, said: “One of the most significant factors that we’re going to see during 2026 will be around the cost of borrowing.

“We can expect a degree of certainty around interest rates. We do not expect any significant change in those. That provides a level of certainty, with mortgage lending fairly readily available. That all points towards a balanced, steady market for the next 12 months.”

According to the latest statistics from the UK House Price Index, the average price of a property in Scotland is £194,000, up 5.3 per cent on the year.

A report in the autumn suggested that Scottish house prices were likely to rise by an average of 3 per cent in 2025 with Glasgow in top spot for growth.

Property firm Rettie said the below-inflation rise came amid a backdrop of modestly improving economic conditions.

The average house price in Glasgow grew by 5 per cent during the first eight months of the year, outstripping other Scottish cities, with growth in Edinburgh falling behind the national average, according to the Rettie figures.

John Boyle, the firm’s director of strategy and research, said: “The market remains in a delicate condition given that interest rates and mortgage rates remain high in a recent historical context and economic growth is limited.”