News

Mortgage lending was up in the second quarter 2015 by 11%on quarter one. This should be good news, but much of it was re mortgages, people locking in a fixed rate in fear of a rate rise, which is much further down the road than the B of E would have us believe. 5.5% of the increase was BTL rather than FTB whom we desperately need to get the property market back into balance.

More of a worry close to home is North Sea investment. It is reported that North Sea investment in oil and gas could drop as much as 80% by 2017 as the collapse in oil prices forces the industry to cut back.

Capital investment across the industry of £14.8 billion last year, will probably decline by £2bn to £4bn annually to 2017. Oil and Gas UK, an industry group has stated in their annual economic report.

This will have a profound effect on the entire Scottish Economy, not just Aberdeen, and therefore house transactions.