Scotland is bucking the trend in the UK property market after new figures today showed a rise in prices in the last quarter.
Scotland also recorded the smallest drop in the cost of a home in the last 12 months, a survey by mortgage lender Nationwide found.
The average house price fell by 8.1% north of the border in 2008 compared with 14.8% in England and 32.4% in Northe
rn Ireland.
Prices actually saw a 0.1% increase in the last quarter of the year – the only part of the UK to experience a rise between October and December.
Across the UK the cost of a home dropped by an average of 4.4%.
And Scots are the most optimistic about the future, with 11% believing prices will increase in the next six months.
But Nationwide said housing market conditions remained uncertain.
Chief economist Fionnuala Earley said: "Scotland continues to experience the smallest falls in the UK.
"While prices in Scotland are 8.1% lower than last year, Scotland was the only part of the UK to show a seasonally adjusted increase in prices in October-December.
"While prices increased by only 0.1%, this follows a fall of 5.1% in the third quarter (Q3) – larger than the UK average in Q3 – and suggests that conditions in Scotland are still somewhat uncertain."
The average house price in Scotland stands at £138,941.
The most expensive area is Edinburgh, where the average home costs £241,617, while Fife is the most affordable region, with home buyers spending around £131,565 on average.
Renfrewshire and Inverclyde saw the largest annual fall in prices (15%), followed by Dunbartonshire and North Lanarkshire (12%).
The full article contains 287 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
