THE average price of a house in Argyll and Bute fell by 3.9 per cent in the year to November, according to new figures.

The UK government’s monthly House Price Index analysis found the average price of a property in the area in November 2017 was £127,373 – a fall of more than £5,000 on the figure 12 months previously.

The year-on-year decline in Argyll and Bute was the third steepest of any Scottish local council area, behind only the Western Isles (down 11.3 per cent) and Aberdeen City (down 4.2 per cent).

By contrast, the biggest year-on-year increase anywhere in Scotland was in neighbouring West Dunbartonshire, where average prices rose by 10.3 per cent to £106,216.

The Scotland-wide average for November was £145,992, an increase of 3.6 per cent on the figure 12 months previously, while the most expensive place to buy a house in Scotland in November was the City of Edinburgh, followed by East Renfrewshire, East Lothian and East Dunbartonshire.

The figures, produced by the Office for National Statistics, also go against the recent trend in Argyll and Bute: it’s the first month since June in which the average price of a house in the area has fallen year-on-year.

The monthly report ranked Argyll and Bute 13th in the list of house prices in Scotland’s 32 local authority areas.

Kenny Crawford, business development and information director at the Registers of Scotland, which provides Scottish data for the UK-wide report, said: “Average prices in Scotland continued their upward trend in November with an increase of 3.6 per cent when compared to November 2016.

"Average prices have been steadily increasing each month since March 2016, when compared with the same month of the previous year."