Scottish housing prices show fall

Quarterly figures show house prices have fallen by 5%

The slowdown in the housing market has started to bite in Scotland, according to Nationwide Building Society figures.

The lender said average prices fell by 5% between July and September, compared to a 4.6% decline across the UK.

The figure was down 7.1% in Scotland over the last year - the slowest rate of decline in the UK.

The quarterly figures showed Scotland, which had seen prices rise in the second three months of the year, was moving closer to the rest of the UK.

Fionnula Early, Nationwide's chief economist, said it was no surprise that Scotland was starting to follow the same downward trend.

"Scotland was never going to be completely immune from what's going on in the rest of the economy," she said.

REGIONS QUARTERLY CHANGE Aberdeen City -7% Aberdeenshire & Moray -2% Dunbartonshire & N Lanarkshire -8% Dundee & Angus -6% Edinburgh City -3% Fife -5% Glasgow City -8% Highlands & Islands -5% Lothian & Falkirk -4% Perthshire & Stirling -3% Renfrewshire & Inverclyde -10% South Lanarkshire -5% Southern Scotland -5%

"People's confidence in the housing market, and the way they feel about whether they should enter the market, has changed in just the same way as the rest of the UK."

The figures showed that Edinburgh was one of the few cities across the UK where prices were holding up. However, it still saw a 3% decline.

Every region of Scotland saw average house prices fall below last year's levels, according to the lender's data.

This represented a change from the previous quarter, when Aberdeen and the surrounding area maintained price growth.

Nationwide said house prices in Glasgow were down 8% from the previous year.

The largest price drop was measured in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde, with a fall of 10% over the last 12 months.

Ms Early said: "Scotland is still much better than the rest of the UK in terms of house price to earnings ratio and the general affordability of property.

"However, people are beginning to be more realistic about where the economy is going.

"People are beginning to wonder about jobs and that is affecting how they feel about other things - about whether now is the time to stay put and get their finances in order."