While this might not be the time to make a quick return, the housing market is cyclical and new homes are a sound investment in the medium to long-term.
So with interest rates at a record low, a range of attractive deals currently on offer and a variety of innovative and robust solutions available from home builders to help people get onto and up the property ladder, now is a good time to buy.
With increasing affordability and choice, this is especially true for those trading up because price differentials have closed and also because, with supply falling, Scotland will face an even greater housing shortage as the market recovers.
As new homes will therefore continue to be in high demand, this consequential lack of supply could conceivably drive significant pent-up demand - perversely fuelling conditions for a potential return to double-digit house price inflation in the future. Deals available now won’t be around indefinitely so waiting it out could therefore be a risky strategy.
People continue to need comfortable, reliable places to live - new homes are guaranteed, sustainable and built to the highest standards, making them up to five times more energy efficient than their Victorian equivalent.
Many new homes are now built to order - providing additional time, flexibility and increased confidence for those needing to sell existing properties.
Scotland continues to remain the best performing part of the UK – even recording a slight seasonally adjusted increase in the last quarter of 2008, the only part of the UK to have experienced any rise in prices for a year (Nationwide House Price Index 6 January 2009).
Scotland was also found to be the most optimistic area of the UK with over half of consumers expecting house prices to stay the same or slightly rise over the next six months, demonstrating the underlying strength of sentiment in the Scottish housing market.
According to property website Rightmove, around 66% of people think now is a good time to get a property with 24% believing the Scottish market is performing better than the rest of the UK.
Research from home.co.uk also shows that vendors seem to have a greater chance of selling their homes in Scotland than elsewhere in the UK with 40% of places where houses sell fastest. There is also not one Scottish location among the estate agency portal’s worst-selling spots in Britain.