City house prices still rising despite UK slump

HOUSE prices in the Capital have continued to rise, despite the slump in the UK market.

Across the UK house prices have fallen by around 5 per cent over the last year, according to official government figures.

But the latest report issued by the Registers of Scotland showed that prices in the Capital had gone up by 0.2 per cent compared to the third quarter last year.

And Edinburgh again recorded the highest average residential price in Scotland at 226,516, an increase of 2.9 per cent on the last quarter.

Figures for Scotland showed an increase of 0.1 per cent in the average house price for the third quarter of 2008, compared to the same period in 2007.

And the average price of a residential property in Scotland increased by 2.9 per cent in the third quarter of 2008 when compared with the second quarter.

The average all-Scotland price for the third quarter of 2008 was 160,155.

The volume of sales transactions showed a decrease of 41.1 per cent compared to the same quarter last year and a decrease of 19.4 per cent on the previous quarter.

Edinburgh was the largest market, with sales of just over 588 million for the quarter, although this was a decrease of 46 per cent over the same quarter last year.

The total value of sales across Scotland registered during the quarter was just over 4 billion, a decrease of 17.1 per cent over the previous quarter.