Buyers at the lower end of the property market had a better chance of getting a good deal at the end of last year, research indicates.
The average selling prices for flats, terraced houses and semi-detached properties fell by between £4800 and £6400 in the final quarter of 2013, compared to the previous three months, the study found.
The latest quarterly house price report by property website s1homes also showed the average asking price for all property types fell in the final quarter of the year, with the most sizeable drop being for flats.
Ewan Stark, managing director of s1homes, said: "Sellers are pricing properties more competitively in order to secure sales and buyers at the lower end of the market are managing to purchase property for less than they were last quarter."
The house price report samples around 25,000 properties advertised on the website every month and analyses trends in the property markets throughout Scotland.
It claims to be the only report to focus on the so-called reality gap - the difference between sellers' price expectations and what they achieve.
Analysis of trends in October to December reveals that, despite the changes in asking and selling prices, there was little movement in the reality gap, which narrowed slightly to remain at just over 2%.
On average last quarter, properties sold for about £3000 less than their asking price.
Regionally, the biggest reality gap was in Ayrshire, where properties are on average selling for 18%, or £27,000, below their asking price.
Edinburgh is the only place where the average property sells for more than the asking price, with sellers achieving 1.3%, or £3000, more.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article