The Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC) has reported that property prices in The Lothians have fallen 5.3% and in Edinburgh they have fallen 3.6% in the past quarter of the year.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland/House-prices-in-Lothians-fall.6831914.jp?articlepage=1

Is this actually true though? Or are the statistics potentially misleading?

Reports today in The Herald that, according to Registers of Scotland data, East Renfrewshire has replaced Edinburgh as the highest house price area in Scotland.  However, as always, beware such statistics!

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/edinburgh-is-knocked-off-top-spot-for-house-prices-1.1115419

The monthly Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Survey has just come out and makes for fairly gloomy reading.  However, what it is saying is not what we are seeing in the parts of Scotland we operate in so please note the comments later in this piece after the coverage of what the RICS survey says.

The Chief Executive of one of the UK's largest lenders has warned that, when interest rates go up, the number of repossessions could become a 'tsunami'.  All this just a day after the Bank of International Settlements (which I've seen described as 'the Central Bank for Central Banks') said that the policy of the Bank of England with regard to keeping interest rates historically low was "unsustainable".  http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jun/27/house-repossessions-wave-interest-rates-rise

The 'tsunami' comments come from the most powerful person at a lender that almost nobody in the UK has probably heard of.  However, this man knows what he's talking about when it comes to repossessions and borrowers who are in trouble.  UK Asset Resolution (UKAR) has 750,000 customers and is set up to run the nationalised mortgages of Bradford & Bingley and parts of Northern Rock.  It's the UK's fifth largest mortgage lender.  However, 23,000 of those mortgage holders are more than six months behind with payments.