Scottish house prices fall again

HOUSE prices in Scotland fell for the third successive month at the end of last year, according to new figures.

Prices dropped 0.2 per cent in December to an average of £146,913, the latest LSL Acad Scotland House Price Index showed. There was also a 1 per cent drop year-on-year, it said.

However, the number of transactions in December was up 2.5 per cent on November.

Property experts said that mortgage lenders had helped keep up the flow of buyers but warned that the picture for the future looks gloomy.

Your Move regional managing director Gordon Fowlis said: “Prices fell marginally in December but no further than you’d expect in the normal seasonal downturn.”

The biggest annual increase was in the Western Isles where prices soared 22.3 per cent from £93,057 in December 2010 to £113,836 in December 2011.