Edinburgh bucks decline in £1m-plus home sales

The number of house sales valued at £1 million and above dropped by 6 per cent last year, according to data from property group Rettie & Co.

Edinburgh saw an 8% rise in sales at the top end of the market, but Aberdeen suffered a 44% slump. Picture: Scott Barbour/Getty Images

However, while Aberdeen witnessed a 44 per cent slump in transactions at the top end of the market and Glasgow was broadly unchanged, Edinburgh recorded an 8 per cent rise in £1m-plus sales.

The capital accounted for 56 per cent of the 166 seven-figure deals north of the Border, up from 49 per cent in 2015, while overseas buyers made up 13 per cent of the overall premium market, worth an estimated £228m across Scotland, as they took advantage of the weakness of the pound.

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Andrew Meehan, senior researcher at Rettie & Co, said: “In spite of an uncertain political backdrop and economy-related concerns, the market for £1m-plus homes in Scotland proved its resilience in 2016 and was noteworthy for the increase in foreign buyers and the rise of new homes in urban areas at the relative expense of country sales.”

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