HOUSE prices in Scotland rallied at the start of the year to help put the brakes on the slide of last year.
The annual LSL Property Services/Acadametrics house-price index shows prices rose by more than £1000 at the start of 2013.
But the boost comes after values tumbled by an average of £4000 in 2012.
Gordon Fowlis, of estate agency Your Move, warned 2012's market had been volatile, restricting growth.
He said: "The crux of the problem is weak mortgage lending. Demand for mortgages is falling, and the supply of them remains painfully tight. And Scotland is more exposed to public sector cuts than England and Wales."
The survey found the average property price in Scotland at the start of the year was £141,866, down from £145,880 a year earlier.
Price rises were recorded in one-third of Scotland's 32 council areas, including East Renfrewshire, Argyll and Bute, and Dundee.
The highest rise was in the Western Isles, where an average property went up from £96,046 to £102,575. In Glasgow, prices fell by 8.8%, from £129,826 to £120,940
The picture is further skewed because the rate of decline reached double digits in South Lanarkshire, West Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire and Orkney.
Michael Luck, of estate agents Slater Hogg & Howison, advised reading the figures with caution: "Do we think every house in Scotland fell by 4.2%? No, we don't," he said. "Some types of housing have increased."
Andrew Smith, from Strutt & Parker, said: "There are areas of strength - which have proved resilient in the past year, such as Edinburgh, East Lothian, Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire." He added that the top end of the market had been busy so far this year.
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