I was prompted to write this article by an article that I read in Moneyweek's Blog the other day:

http://www.moneyweek.com/blog/is-buying-property-cheaper-than-renting-dont-be-so-sure-55628

It was based on an example of a property that has 'fallen in value' by 37%. That property was sold at auction. The article then went on to outline that the property price at auction is a fair reflection of the state of the market than statistics based on the actual sales that are recorded on the basis that the actual sales recorded are the best examples of properties on the market.

There is a LOT that I disagree with in the article: mainly that an auction price is in any way reflective of the true state of the property market. However, I'll start with what I do agree with, that the property price statistics that are widely reported DON'T show us the full extent of the property market crash...

Lots of surveys and statistics around, but which of them are true? And are property prices falling in Scotland?

Recently released statistics from the Department for Communities and Local Government show an annual fall in property prices in Scotland in the past year of 2.3%.

Meantime, Rightmove's latest House Price Index showed the average asking price increased by 0.7 per cent over the month to £233,139, following a drop of 2.1 per cent between July and August. This is a UK statistic, not a Scottish one, and I've already blogged about why asking price statistics aren't terribly useful: http://mov8realestate.com/blog/item/99-homecouk-september-home-asking-price-index-shows-property-prices-in-scotland-and-the-uk-are-down.html

Just this weekend I had the first warning shot of how dangerous Twitter can potentially be to your reputation.  And it wasn't from accidentally posting offensive material, someone drunk using my computer at night, or any of the hundreds of other, slightly obvious, ways in which Twitter can be pretty harmful to the way people look at you.  It was through accidentally spreading a bit of malware which, frankly, I hadn't really considered to be too much of a risk.

On Saturday evening at around 10.30pm I got an SMS from a friend who follows us on Twitter (@mov8realestate) to tell me that it looked like our Twitter account had been hacked.  He had just received a Direct Message (DM) from us, asking him to click on a link that Twitter marked as fraudulent.  Fortunately I was on my way home after deciding to have a relatively early night, dashed to the computer, changed our passwords, tweeted to let people know what had happened and asking them not to click on any links that were apparently sent from us.  How did it happen?  Really simple...

There's been a lot written in the Press in the past few days about property prices. There's been the usual house price reports from lenders, the RICS (Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors) property market report, our own ESPC (Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre) report too. The ESPC report is probably most applicable to ourselves as we market most of our properties on the east coast of Scotland. However, we do market properties across the Central Belt of Scotland and indeed as far west as Mull, so we have a keen eye on what is happening on the west coast and across the Central Belt. So what's my personal take on what's happening with property prices at the moment, based on what is being written and also what I am seeing 'on the ground'? Read on...!