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Scotland sees rise in home sales at upper end of market, led by Edinburgh

There has been an increase in the number of homes sold in Scotland for over a million pounds, led by growth in this sector in Edinburgh, new data shows.

Overall sales in this property sector increased by 4% in 2017 after a slow start to the year with the Scottish capital accounting for the third highest volume of transactions outside of London and the South East.

The analysis from the Bank of Scotland shows that overall some 158 properties worth more than a million pounds were sold in Scotland in 2017, up from 152 in 2016 and the 4% rise is only just slower than the 5% growth for the UK as a whole.

It marks a substantial uplift from the first half of 2017, which saw sales fall by 35% in Scotland, compared to a drop of 1% for the rest of the nation and over the last five years sales have increased in this sector by 39%.

However, they’re still significantly lower than those recorded before the financial crisis; in 2007, there were 222 transactions recorded, marking a 29% drop over the last 10 years.

Sales in Edinburgh accounted for 64% of transactions overall in Scotland with 101 sold. After Edinburgh, the highest number of Scottish sales were in East Lothian, followed by Glasgow and East Dunbartonshire. South Lanarkshire saw a biggest year on year decline of million pound properties, dropping from 11 properties sold in 2016, to three in 2017.

‘It was a year of two halves for the million pound property market in Scotland, which got off to a very poor start in 2017 before making a strong recovery in the latter part of the year,’ said Donald Gateley, head of Bank of Scotland Private Banking.

‘It seems that high end home owners and investors in Scotland are starting to regain their confidence in the market, despite factors such as the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax and the ongoing uncertainty around Brexit,’ he explained.

He pointed out that while things are now looking more positive, particularly in Edinburgh, transactions are still lower than they were a decade ago in Scotland, which is in contrast to the rest of Britain. ‘Last year’s growth indicates a move in the right direction and over the next 12 months we will see if the confidence shown in the latter half of 2017 continues,’ he added.

‘The market isn’t only made up of buyers, however. There are thousands of home owners occupying million pound properties across the country, many of whom may be considering downsizing, relocating or extending their existing homes,’ he concluded.

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