ESTATE agents say that the Scottish housing market has hit a slowdown after house prices fell for the second month in a row.
Fresh figures show that the average price of a home dipped in May and June after rising steadily in the first half of the year, while the number of houses being bought and sold fell by more than 10 per cent.
At the end of June, the average price stood at £182,163, down more than £1,200 on the month before. Overall, prices fell in 22 of the 32 local authority areas, including the property hotspots of Edinburgh and East Renfrewshire.
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However, despite the monthly drops, the average house price is still more than £7,700 higher than at the same time last year, the Your More/Acadata House Price Index found.
John Tindale, senior housing analyst for Acadata, said: "Some of the steam has gone from Scotland’s property market this month, with house prices decreasing by £1,271 in June. This is the second month in succession in which rates of growth were negative, and larger than the -0.2 per cent reduction seen in May.
"Some 22 of the 32 local authority areas saw prices fall in June, compared to just 12 in May, indicating that the reduction in prices is being witnessed across two-thirds of Scotland’s local authority areas."
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Despite the slowdown in the capital, Edinburgh still has the highest house price in Scotland at £273,897. In Glasgow, Scotland's biggest city, here prices rose 1.1 per cent to £158,367, about £2,000 off its peak set in February.
The largest drop in the month was recorded in Dumfries and Galloway, where prices fell by 6.5% per cent, with the average cost of detached homes reducing from £202k in May to £191k in June.
In East Renfrewshire house prices fell by 3.3 per cent to an average of £262,358, while in three area - East Ayrshire, Perth and Kinross, and Aberdeen City - prices are lower than they were a year ago.
Edinburgh
Christine Campbell, Your Move managing director in Scotland, said: “The market in Scotland has noticeably slowed as we’ve gone into the summer yet it still shows some strong annual growth, and it’s encouraging to see almost all areas showing positive performance.”
READ MORE: Scottish house buyers paying £30k more than asking price
Alan Penman, business development manager for Walker Fraser Steele, one of Scotland’s oldest firms of chartered surveyors and part of the LSL group of companies, added: “Despite a slowdown, Edinburgh remains the foundation of the market in Scotland, showing a market with considerable resilience.”
Source: Your Move/Acadata
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