PROPERTY sales throughout Inverclyde have increased over the past year.

New statistics released by the Registers of Scotland show that between April and June this year 307 properties were sold totalling over £40m – a 15 per cent rise on the same period last year when 267 homes were sold.

The figures show that the average property price in the area has risen from £127,051 in April-June last year to £131,724 in the same three months this year.

The biggest price rise was for semi detached homes, with an average asking price of £130,476 – a 21 per cent rise from the same period last year.

However, sales of semi detached properties fell by over four per cent.

Meanwhile, there was a 31 per cent rise in the number of apartments sold in the first quarter of 2016/17 while the average price of a flat fell by 1.1 per cent.

The price of terraced homes also dropped slightly, by 0.2 per cent, while sales increased by over seven per cent.

Alasdair Hendry, a solicitor at local estate agents Blair and Bryden, said the property market in the area is ‘steady’ but warned that these figures are down to a number of different factors, including changes in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax that came into effect in April for additional dwellings, such as second homes and buy-to-let properties.

He told the Tele: “I think you have to be wary of taking these figures at face value.

“Property prices can be affected in any one area by new property developments which can quite often skew the overall picture because they tend to be at the higher end of the market.

“With regards to the three per cent Land and Buildings Transaction Tax, which was introduced on the 1st of April, it created a spike in the figures shortly before then.

“I think it’s fair to say that in the short term and at the lower end of the market, it has slowed down slightly at the moment due to this.

"On the whole, property sales in Inverclyde are steady, however there is a dearth or properties coming on for sale and there are clearly potential buyers in existence in the area.”