Scotland bucks UK housing slump

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 Northern 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%).