Edinburgh property boom sees house sales soar
07-28-2014
The average price of city homes is £270,519. Picture: Colin Hattersley
EDINBURGH has been declared the hottest place to buy property in the UK – topping London and Glasgow in a nationwide league of rising house sales.
The Capital was said to be experiencing a “mini Londonesque boom” with demand up by more than 20 per since the start of the year.
The Property Hotspot League, compiled by online estate agents eMoov.co.uk, showed Edinburgh was the “number one riser” out of the UK’s 100 largest towns and cities in terms of the percentage of properties sold.
Figures showed the number of homes sold soared from 29.8 per cent in February to 50.4 per cent this month, with an average price of £270,519. A eMoov.co.uk spokesman said: “Edinburgh is seeing a mini Londonesque boom in the Property Hotspot League.
“It is now the hottest place to buy property in the UK with prices likely to continue to rise based on the limited availability of properties on the market.
“Demand is up over 20 per cent within the last six months alone with over 50 per cent of properties on the market now sold. Glasgow and Aberdeen have also benefited with a rise of ten per cent and 7.7 per cent respectively.”
In contrast, the league table shows demand for homes in most areas of central London have declined despite rising house prices. Fourteen of the biggest falls in demand were in the London area.
Donald Anderson, of lobbying group PPS Scotland, said there was a queue of developers eager to build in Edinburgh if they can find the right site.
He added: “Edinburgh is one of the best cities in the world and there are always plenty of people enthusiastic about coming to live here. People who study here stay on in large numbers.
“And there’s a great quality of life for people where they are single professionals or have a family.”
Last month, statistics from the Registers of Scotland showed house prices in Edinburgh have risen by almost 30 per cent over the past decade, despite the recession.
Average house prices across the country were up by 36 per cent since 2004. In Edinburgh, they increased by 28.8 per cent over the period, compared with a massive 98.6 per cent in Aberdeen and the smallest increase, 9.6 per cent, in Glasgow. But experts said properties in the Capital were selling at reasonable, affordable prices.
Last week, figures from the ESPC, the city’s biggest house-seller, showed the number of houses being sold across the Capital had soared by more than 30 per cent on last year.
The market for one-bedroom properties saw a dramatic 50 per cent increase in sales.
The report also revealed the average house price in Edinburgh during the quarter was £223,924 – up by 3.9 per cent from last year.