 last reported such a decline in June 2020. Last week Nationwide said UK house prices dropped at their fastest annual rate for 14 years in July. Higher interest rates have made mortgages more expensive in recent months, while rising prices have hit people's spending power. When RICS last reported a price decline three years ago, showings were not allowed due to the pandemic and there was widespread economic uncertainty about jobs and incomes. Over the three months to July, it said every other part of Britain had a more negative opinion about prices while there was a less negative response in Northern Ireland. The survey found a sharp deterioration in the price outlook for three months ahead, and in the number of transactions. As interest rates have risen steadily over the past 20 months, the number of prospective buyers coming into the Scottish homes market is down, according to a clear majority of RICS surveyors. More were reporting a negative outlook than at any time since the middle of last decade. Although this way of measuring market sentiment shows how opinion is shifting, the figures do not show how much prices or the number of transactions has been falling, or are expected to fall. Image source, Getty Images Image caption, More people are now working from home since the pandemic Comment from surveyors pointed to the increased cost of borrowing money for mortgages as the main cause of the market slowdown. Alan Kennedy, of Shepherd surveyors in Fraserburgh, said higher interest rates had "stifled market activity, though demand still exceeds supply in some sectors". If demand outstrips supply, that can sustain prices or even push them up, despite borrowing){kind=link}
Property experts are reporting the first fall in the price of buying a home in Scotland since the market was disrupted by Covid.
Most chartered surveyors told their trade association that they had seen prices going down since April.
The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) last reported such a decline in June 2020.
Last week Nationwide said UK house prices dropped at their fastest annual rate for 14 years in July.
Higher interest rates have made mortgages more expensive in recent months, while rising prices have hit people’s spending power.