Luxury homes lead resurgence in property sales

Published on Saturday 14 November 2009 12:09

THE property market is picking up across Scotland with an increasing number of houses being sold near the top end of the market as confidence returns, according to agents.

Rettie & Co said Perthshire is leading a resurgence in rural property sales and reasserting itself as one of the most in-demand places to live.

The agency has placed under offer and sold property approaching a total value of 10million in Perthshire, from Perth to Dunkeld to Gleneagles, within the past two months.

Director Chris Hall said: "Perthshire has always been considered one of the premier locations in Scotland to live, due to its quality of lifestyle."

Some of its recent sales in Perthshire include a 16th-century castle for offers in the region of 2.2m and a sprawling family house with land and stables near Auchterarder for offers over 975,000.

Hall said the sale of these houses and three plots at Gleneagles shows a return of buyers willing to make multi-million-pound purchases outside the preferred urban districts of Edinburgh and Glasgow and heralds a further recovery in the Scottish market.

"It is becoming apparent that the market has done its correction and has entered a period of slow but sustained growth. We are now seeing stronger interest in quality properties for sale across rural areas of Scotland," he said.

Rival estate agent Strutt & Parker said its Scottish house sales were up by 43 per cent on this time last year. It sold 51 properties across the country in the three months from 1 September this year. A further 59 properties went under offer.

The Edinburgh city market is in particularly good shape, said Strutt & Parker partner Blair Stewart. Since January his team has sold 55 homes worth around 58m. Two properties sold by Strutt & Parker were in excess of 3m, four sold for more than 2m and a further 15 went for more than 1m. New Town and West End flats in the capital were "flying", he added.

"All the signs point to the fact that confidence is returning, and confidence is key to economic growth," he said.