Scotland falling back in love with the suburbs, as prime market is boosted by the return of home-grown wealth - Savills

While traditionally strong areas like the New Town, Stockbridge and Morningside in Edinburgh and the West End in Glasgow have been enjoying a strong market over the last five years, outlying areas had been slower to recover until now.

Andrew Perratt, Savills’ head of residential in Scotland, said: “Scotland’s buyers are now falling back in love with the suburbs. We have seen a jump in sales across suburban locations where we are seeing the return of the ‘closing date’, and premium prices being paid. This may be explained by a dwindling supply of the best homes available to buy in the most sought-after city locations. We expect this trend to continue and to ripple further outwards to more attainable suburbs, like Liberton in Edinburgh and Netherlee in Glasgow.”

This upturn in the suburban market is taking place against the backdrop of a generally improving residential property market.

According to the research, the prime market (£400,000 or above) outperformed Scotland’s overall market last year, with the highest level of activity since 2007. Prime is expected to grow by a further 18.8 per cent over the next five years in terms of values, outperforming the overall residential market and in comparison to 22.2 per cent across Great Britain. Commuter locations are expected to see the greatest growth, with lower fuel costs playing a part. As a result, further outlying areas including Midlothian and locations such as Helensburgh and Kilmacolm are on the upturn.

According to Savills research, Scotland is continuing to attract overseas investors, yet wealthy Scottish buyers are once again prevalent in the market, and there were some important ‘trophy’ country house and estate sales during 2015.

Faisal Choudhry, Savills head of research in Scotland said: “The prime market between £400,000 and £1m continues to be constrained outside Edinburgh by LBTT (Land and Buildings Transaction Tax). While the number of million pound sales in Scotland rose steeply from 146 in 2014 to 194 last year, most took place prior to the introduction of the new property tax.

“There were 194 sales over £1m last year and while Edinburgh accounted for 51 per cent, there was also a prevalence of local wealth in Fife and in East Lothian. The latter saw 17 sales over £1m, the highest number outside Edinburgh.”

While, Savills also revealed that the value of commercial property deals in Scotland is set to increase 33 per cent in the first quarter on the same period last year.

Savills said deals worth £662.6 million are expected to exchange or complete by March 31 against £498m last time as buyers from Germany, the US and the Middle East drive the market.