Canadians offered 'crofts' discounts

UPMARKET "croft" houses in a remote part of the Highlands are being offered at discounted rates to Canadians after they failed to find UK buyers.

And those willing to go to the greatest lengths to snap up the properties will get the best "bargain".

The four properties at Sand, near Gairloch in Wester Ross, are each on the market for 250,000 - or 1 million for all four.

The houses were put up for sale last year but failed to find any buyers during the recession.

Now Sylvia Marshall, a training consultant turned property developer who rebuilt the houses, is targeting Canadians with Scottish roots. She has promised to reduce the asking price by 1 ($1.60) for every mile the buyer lives from Scotland.

While this would give a discount of only a few hundred pounds for would-be buyers in the UK, those from the eastern provinces - including Nova Scotia, Quebec and Ontario - could save up to 3,500, while buyers from British Columbia could trim nearly 4,500 off the bill.

According to Marshall the offer has already prompted interest - most notably from Australia and New Zealand.

But she said: "Sadly for them, the offer is only available in Canada and North America."

Although the two-bedroom properties are marketed as "crofts" and come with up to an acre of land, they were decrofted in 2008, meaning the buyers would not be eligible to any crofting grants.

Marshall, from Croydon, Surrey, said: "My family has strong ties to Wester Ross, and I spent a lot of time there when I was a child. After building my own home in the region, my attention turned to new investment opportunities."

She said she doesn't think the houses are too expensive or too remote to find buyers: "Certainly the recession has had an impact. I don't believe the remoteness to be an issue as I can be there from my home in Surrey quicker than I can drive into London (by aircraft and car). Everything you need is in easy striking distance.

"If you compare these to a two-bedroom original croft they would appear expensive, but the additional space, the high-spec features and the attention to detail make these unique.

"This isn't about greed or development. If it were there would not be just four houses in five acres. I wanted to recreate the village as was, and as such the purchaser could indeed have a private village in the heart of the Highlands."

One Highland estate agent said of the unusual marketing technique: "I have never heard of this kind of offer before. It's a different slant and I don't really see the benefit of it, but good luck to her. Without knowing all the details of the properties the price sounds a little high."

But Patrick Krause, chief executive of the Scottish Crofting Foundation, questioned the offer: "It's a bit nauseating to see houses being called crofts, especially by someone who claims roots in the area and should know better.

"She is actually just a property speculator trying to make a killing, but conveying an image of integrity by claiming crofting connections."