Renting will boost homes market

Scotland has become a nation of "reluctant renters", but that will boost the property market in the longer term, a leading solicitors firm has predicted.

Warners says that although many would-be buyers across the country are being forced to "make do" and rent a property while they save up enough money to put down as a deposit on a flat of their own, a lot of people will be ready to enter the market in three to five years time.

Scott Brown, estate agency partner at Warners, said: "I think we are seeing a return to the property market conditions that we had in Scotland in the late 1990s, where people were biding their time in rented accommodation while they save up enough money to put down as a deposit on a home of their own.

"It's a scenario where there is currently an undercurrent of reluctant renters staying in the lettings sector.

"It is this group of reluctant renters who will stimulate activity in Scotland's property market over the coming years. It'll take between three to five years until they have saved enough for their deposits - and many will be halfway through that process already - so I think we will start to see them entering the property market in the coming years."