NEW figures released by Registers of Scotland showing a rise of more than 22 per cent in the volume of house sales for the fourth consecutive quarter should be welcomed cautiously.
While they do show signs of movement in the housing market, they are also accompanied by a rise in the cost of buying a house of 5.9 per cent in the past year. Although a modest rise, it still outstrips average salary increases for most people trying to get on the property ladder and therefore pushes the prospect of buying a home further away from more people.
As demand for houses continues to rise, without a sustained increase in the supply of social and affordable homes, the spectre of a housing bubble looms.
We need to build 10,000 more socially rented homes each year for the foreseeable future to take pressure off the housing market and help to avoid the social and economic catastrophe of boom to bust.
Graeme Brown,
Director, Shelter Scotland,
Scotiabank House,
6 South Charlotte Street,
Edinburgh.
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