Paul Hilton

When you imagine the kind of property young buyers want to live in, you’d be forgiven for thinking immediately of glossy city apartments or spacious townhouses. But in fact, the property deemed among the coolest for young families is the humble bungalow, who would’ve thought it?

Typically popular with older buyers and downsizers, bungalows are now seeing a huge amount of interest from younger buyers (mostly millennials) looking for a family home.

Could it be due to this age group typically spending so much time living in flats prior to buying a house, and wanting to continue the feeling of living on a single storey? Not only do they offer a closer, more sociable feel than a multi-storey home, but bungalows are also cheaper to heat, which may also appeal to cash-strapped younger buyers. 

Research shows that demand for bungalows has steadily grown, with internet searches soaring 53 per cent in the past 20 years. There have been huge shifts in online culture, with bungalows becoming the property du jour for renovation content. It’s true that bungalows offer huge potential for renovation, which may also be part of their immense appeal; often situated on larger plots, bungalows can offer the option to extend both outwards and upwards, allowing homeowners to create their ideal home while enjoying the perks of a detached setting and ample outdoor space. 

If it sounds idyllic to you, you’re not alone in thinking so. At ESPC, we can see that there is significant demand for this property type throughout Edinburgh, the Lothians, Fife and the Borders, compounded by low levels of stock. At the time of writing, there were just 212 bungalows for sale on espc.com, out of over 3,000 properties listed. And during January-August this year, just 6 per cent of total property sales were for bungalows, highlighting how few of these in-demand properties make it to the open market – for context, flats made up just over 52 per cent of sales during this time, and houses made up just under 37 per cent.

When bungalows do appear, their reputation speaks for itself, and we see buyers acting accordingly. During January-August 2024, bungalows achieved the highest premium at sale compared to other property types, with successful buyers bidding 103 per cent of the Home Report valuation on average, while houses and flats achieved just under 102 per cent on average. Bungalows also sold faster than traditional houses, going under offer in a median time of 25 days, compared to 27 days for multi-storey houses. In Edinburgh South, bungalows sold 23 per cent faster than the median selling time for the area, signalling that buyers are waiting for this kind of property to appear on the market and will act fast in order to snap one up. 

The Scottish Borders is currently the top-selling area for bungalows in 2024, followed by Edinburgh South, West Fife & Kinross, Edinburgh North and East Lothian. 

Bungalows generally achieve a higher average selling price than traditional houses or flats; our data shows that bungalows in these top-selling areas achieved a sale price that was at least 20 per cent higher on average than the overall average for those areas. In Edinburgh North, this figure tripled, with bungalows achieving a sale price that was, on average, 63 per cent higher than the overall area average, clearly indicating how strong the demand is for this particular type of property. 

The data speaks for itself; clearly, buyers want to buy a bungalow, and the lack of them on the market means that we see an intense spike of activity whenever one does appear.

Understandably, they’re not a popular property type with developers; the appeal of a bungalow lies massively in the traditionally large plots they tend to be situated on, which generally doesn’t add up for a developer trying to maximise their returns when plotting out a new estate, so we’re unlikely to see an influx of new-build bungalows appearing on the open market any time soon. 

However, for any developer brave enough to take the gamble, it’s clear to see that demand in the market is at something of an all-time high, with an abundance of buyers ready and willing to pay a good premium to enjoy the bounties of bungalow life.