Expectations for future house price movements are the most optimistic in Scotland and had been so consistently throughout 2008, according to the Nationwide Building Society's final quarter survey.

The reports shows that the UK's annual house values fell by 15.9% in 2008 however, in Scotland prices went down by 8.1% over the year.

UK prices fell by 2.5% in December although Scotland was the only region to see an increase of 0.1% during the fourth quarter.

All Scottish regions seen a fall in house prices - the largest fall was experienced in Renfrewshire and Inverclyde where prices fell by 15% over the last year - In Edinburgh prices saw the lowest fall of 6% in the year.

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Commenting on the figures Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide's Chief Economist, said 2008 has been a difficult year for the housing market: "In the final quarter of the year the average annual rate of house price fall in the UK was 14.7% - a stark contrast to the 6.9% increase recorded in the final quarter of 2007. However this disguises some large differences across the countries and regions of the UK.

"In Scotland prices fell by only 8.1% over the year, whereas in Northern Ireland they fell more than four times as much at -34.2%. However these examples represent the extremes. Across the remaining parts of the UK, price falls were in a much narrower range. East Anglia recorded the largest fall at 16.6%, while the Northern region recorded the smallest at 11%."

(GK/JM)