The Scottish property on the buy-to-let market has been augmented by the recent economic downturn, it has been claimed.
Some Scottish first-time buyers have been priced out of the market owing to the ongoing economic slowdown, which has resulted in a "long overdue increase" in rental demand, according to Rettie & Co.
People looking to buy a property in Scotland, particularly investors and landlords, will welcome the shift in the market, Diarmid MacKenzie Smith, lettings manager for Rettie & Co, explained.
"With the effects of the so-called ‘credit crunch’, first-time buyers will now come back into the rental sector which will explain the increase in rental demand and signs of rental increases that have recently been experienced," he said.
The last quarter of 2007 saw Scottish property inflation reach 13.1 per cent, compared the UK average of 5.2 per cent, according to the Bank of Scotland’s Scottish House Price Index.