A GAP between property prices in East Renfrewshire and Renfrewshire has grown even wider during the Covid pandemic, new figures reveal.

The average house in East Renfrewshire was sold for £99,976 more than its Renfrewshire counterpart in February last year.

However, by this February, the gap had rocketed to £119,381.

The latest House Price Index from Registers of Scotland shows the average property in East Renfrewshire sold for £250,935 – up by almost £29,000 in the space of a year.

That represents a rise of 12.9%, which is the fifth highest of any council area in Scotland.

Only the Shetland Islands (17.3%), South Ayrshire (14.6%), the Orkney Islands (13.8%) and Moray (13.1%) experienced bigger growth.

East Renfrewshire is now the second most expensive area in Scotland to buy a home – beaten only by Edinburgh, where the average property sold for £280,940.

There has also been a significant increase in average prices in Renfrewshire, going from £122,283 in February 2020 to £131,554 a year later.

This rise of £9,271 amounts to 7.6%, which is just below the Scottish average of 8%.

The cheapest area in Scotland to buy a home is East Ayrshire (£105,003), followed by Inverclyde (£107,923).

Average house prices increased in all 32 council areas in Scotland but the slowest growth (0.7%) was recorded in Aberdeen.

Across Scotland as a whole, the average price was £161,529.

Detached houses showed the biggest increase out of all property types.

A spokesman for Registers of Scotland said: “The smallest average price change of all property types was in flats and maisonettes.”

Latest figures also show a sharp rise in the number of homes being sold in Renfrewshire and East Renfrewshire.

A total of 304 properties in Renfrewshire were snapped up in December 2019 but that grew to 413 in December last year.

The volume of sales in East Renfrewshire rocketed from 144 to 224 over the same period.