The property slowdown may finally have reached North of the Border last month, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. Yesterday, it reported that the "net (price) balance in Scotland turned negative where previously it was the only UK region where the majority of surveyors were reporting house price increases."
The ESPC also recently reported that property price inflation in Edinburgh is waning. But with average one-bedroom flats listed in the £120,000-£130,000 region, buying a house in the capital is still an expensive proposition.
In response to the situation, the City of Edinburgh Council, working with city housing associations, is setting out to build up to 500 new affordable homes next year to help tackle the city's housing crisis. The plan to deliver new homes, highlighted in a report to the Council's Health, Social Care and Housing Committee on 20 May 2008, follows on the completion of 500 new affordable homes in 2007/08. The new homes will be built with funding from the Scottish Government's Affordable Housing Investment Programme.
"I welcome the progress that the Council, working together with housing associations, is making," said Councillor Paul Edie, Housing Convener.
"We have also set out in our Strategic Housing Investment Plan how we could deliver more affordable homes if more investment was available for the city. The challenge remains enormous: we need to deliver 12,000 new homes and we are still significantly short of meeting that need."
"Following recent meetings with Government ministers I know that they share my concern to tackle the shortage of affordable housing in the city and appreciates the strong case Edinburgh has for additional investment to help tackle the acute housing shortage."