HOUSE values in East Renfrewshire are on the up, latest figures reveal.

The average price paid for a property in the local area in September was £235,722 – an increase of 3.4 per cent from the same month last year.

However, the number of sales has plummeted as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

A total of 88 homes were sold across East Renfrewshire during July – way down on the 151 sold in July 2019.

And the rise in property values in the local area is also slower than that experienced across Scotland as a whole, where there has been a 4.3 per cent increase to an average price of £161,510.

According to the UK House Price Index, which is calculated by the Office for National Statistics, the City of Edinburgh remains the most expensive place in Scotland to buy a home, with house-hunters having to splash out an average of £280,154.

In East Lothian, the average price was £242,313, with East Renfrewshire third on the list.

The cheapest council area to purchase a property in is Inverclyde, where you can expect to pay an average of £97,723 – down by seven per cent over the past year.

A spokesperson for the Office for National Statistics said: “In Scotland, semi-detached houses showed the biggest increase out of all property types, rising by 5.6 per cent in the year to September 2020 to £170,000.

“The smallest average house price change of all property types was in flats and maisonettes, up by 2.7 per cent to £116,000.

“House prices increased over the year in 22 out of 32 local authority areas. The largest growth was in South Ayrshire, where prices increased by 8.1 per cent to £149,000. The biggest fall for year ending September 2020 was recorded in City of Aberdeen, where average prices fell over the year by 7.9 per cent to £136,000.”