EDINBURGH’s property market is performing better than some of London’s best-heeled boroughs with no sign of it following the sharp falls in house prices seen there.
According to figures from Rightmove, average asking prices dropped by more than £300,000 per property in areas such as Kensington and Chelsea between August and September.
Wider prices in London have witnessed average fall of £18,000 in the space of a month.
Warners Solicitors and Estate Agents, one of Edinburgh’s leading estate agents, said that despite this the Scottish capital had continued to buck the national trend and had stayed stronger than it had been for a number of years.
With demand continuing to outstrip supply and properties selling more and more quickly, Edinburgh was consistently bucking trends seen across the rest of the UK.
The latest figures from Warners showed that the vast majority of properties were now exceeding their home report valuation, with 76 per cent of homes it sold between June and August selling for more.
Warners operations director David Marshall said: “At the start of 2015 properties in Edinburgh were selling for a little less than one per cent above their valuation and, over the next two years, the average premium generally stood between two and three per cent.
“Early in 2017, however, the average premium being paid to secure properties rose sharply and now stands at just over seven per cent. When we look at what that means in monetary terms the change is substantial.”
He added: “For example, during 2015 and 2016 the average premium paid on property valued at £200,000 would have been between £4000 and £6000. This year, that figure would stand at over £14,000.”
The average premium of properties in Edinburgh has risen from last year, with homes sold through Warners in the three months to August achieving an average selling price of £210,577 – up from £208,804 last year.
In stark contrast however, figures published by Rightmove have noted that the average UK asking price for properties plummeted by £3660 over the past month to £310,000.
“As yet, we have not seen events in London being reflected in the Edinburgh market,” Marshall said. “A lack of properties coming on to the market remains the biggest driver of house price inflation at present and as a result we expect the market to remain favourable to sellers in most cases for the remainder of 2017. In the early months of 2018 we do expect to see more homes coming on to the market, however, and this should help to moderate house price growth and ease the pressure on buyers.”
Figures from Your Move, meanwhile, showed Scottish house prices rose by 0.1 per cent in between June and July -– a year-on-year increase of 4.7 per cent.
This means Scotland had the second-highest regional growth in the UK after the east of England, with an average house price of £175,877, up £7829 over the last year.
Cities continued to perform strongly, with Edinburgh’s prices up by 1.4 per cent in July. It was also the country’s most expensive area with typical houses costing £257,676.
Prices in Glasgow also continued to rise, with 0.9 per cent monthly growth taking it to its third consecutive record value, with the average house worth £155,086, a rise of 7.3 per cent over the year.
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