Scottish housing fall viewed as a 'blip'

The February fall in Scottish house sale and prices was being viewed as a temporary blip in a market after three months of successive rises.

The 0.2 per cent drop, recorded by the Scottish Housing Index, mirrored simlar falls in transactions in England and Wales.

The Index drop, produced by the Royal Bank of Scotland and Scottish Homes in partnership with Registers of Scotland, is viewd as unlikely to reflect a permanent break with the long term upward trend of the market.

The fall was only the second time over the past year that the housing market has shown such a decline with the average price of property falling from œ58,170 in January to œ58,049 for February.

Housing economist at the Royal Bank of Scotland, Andrew McLaughlin, said: "We suspect this setback in prices and activity is temporary. A moderate growth trend is firmly established in the Scottish housing market, and we expect it to reassert itself."