Providing local housing market information: the case of Aberdeen

Information on activity in the UK housing market is provided by banks, governmental agencies, professional bodies, and real estate agencies. The information can be highly aggregated at the level of countries and may become available only with delay. This ignores the fact that real estate markets are always local and that information must be timely to be useful. In Scotland, cooperation between private sector solicitor centres and public sector academic institutions can, in principle, address both shortcomings. The paper shows this for the Aberdeen Housing Market Report, which is produced in cooperation between the Aberdeen Solicitors’ Property Centre and the University of Aberdeen.