Scott Brown, estate agency partner with Warners has predicted that the property market will rise in the second half of next year after a "flat" first six months, after a "challenging year for Scottish property."

Brown says that stability has returned to the market.

"House prices have been rising slowly in recent months and confidence has been improving, so it’s clear that the market is on the road to recovery. However, 2010 will bring new challenges. At the start of the year we will see VAT going back up and Stamp Duty re-introduced on properties priced between £125,000 and £175,000 – the category that the average Scottish property price currently falls under - and this is likely to have some effect on the market.

“Some people may also decide to wait until they see a noticeable further improvement in the market before they start looking to move home. But I do not believe that this will cause the Scottish property market to experience any kind of downturn. There will still be many people who will be buying and selling properties during 2010, so I think it is far more likely that we will a flat market at the start of the year - where prices and sales volume remain stable before rising in the latter part of the year.

“By the end of summer months, I believe that more confidence will return to the market which, in turn, should lead to further house price rises and an increase in the number of sales recorded across Scotland.”