Edinburgh comes top in quality-street stakes

EDINBURGH is home to six of the ten most expensive properties sold in Scotland over the past five years, new figures from the Registers of Scotland have revealed.

No Glasgow or Aberdeen properties made it into the top ten, falling short of the list by almost 1 million.

Only two of the 70 properties listed for Scotland's seven biggest towns and cities were sold this year, with most of the top prices achieved at the height of the property boom before the full impact of the credit crunch was felt.

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Experts warned the figures showed the property slowdown had finally hit high-end homes, which had previously been insulated from the crash.

However, the most pricey property was outside the capital - Seton House, in Longniddry in East Lothian, which sold for 5m in 2007. It was closely followed by a home at Easter Belmont Road in Edinburgh's Murrayfield district which sold for 4.8m the same year.

Third place went to former Rangers chairman David Murray's home in the city's Barnton Avenue, which he bought for 4.5m in late 2006, breaking the 4m barrier for the first time.

In Caledonian Crescent in Auchterarder - just a stone's throw from the luxury Gleneagles Hotel - two properties sold in 2007 to 2008, both for 3.5m.

A home overlooking the 18th green of the Old Course in St Andrews also made the top ten, selling for 3.1m in September last year. Aberdeen's top house sale over the past five years came in January when a home in Kingswells sold for 1.8m.

Neil Harrison, marketing manager of the Edinburgh Solicitors' Property Centre, said the high end of the market had slowed in recent months after staying buoyant during the depth of the recession.

He said: "There was a time, post-credit crunch, when the top end of the market was insulated because people buying properties for 1m plus usually had equity built up and wouldn't have to rely on first-time buyers coming into the other end of the market. However, I think you can only have one bit of the property market outperforming the other for a short time, and the slowdown has now reached the top end.

"I think the reason most of the top properties are in Edinburgh is simply due to the fact it is the capital and a major financial centre."