The burst hasn't started here in Edinburgh yet. Word of mouth from a friend a small ground floor 1 bedroom in a traditional tenement and in need of serious renovation was posted at offers over £95000 and went for £130000. Shear lunacy. It is in a good part of town, but that is over-priced by at least £20000.

There have also been notice boards up in the street about people lining up over night to buy what I presume are new-builds.

So not crashing here yet.


I am hoping that a combination of credit crunch and a reduction in the number of allowed HMO licenses, due to the building of more bespoke student accommodation, will help the city come to its senses.

EDINBURGH IS DIFFERENT - THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A CRASH IN EDINBURGH AND THERE IS A WAVE OF CASH-RICH FOREIGN BUYERS JUST WAITING TO BREAK INTO THE EDINBURGH MARKET. REPEAT AFTER ME: THERE WILL BE NO CRASH IN EDINBURGH BECAUSE EDINBURGH IS DIFFERENT. THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A CRASH IN EDINBURGH SO THERE NEVER WILL BE. EDINBURGH IS DIFFERENT....

Most Edinburghers are still subscribing to this mantra I think. It's all hype though so I don't take it seriously. Where were the notices about people queuing up overnight? If it was Springside / Fountainbridge then you might be interested to read this thread...

Students Recruited to Camp Outside Estate Agents

Yes it's that famous wave of cash-rich foreign buyers (from Ireland and England ) paying 4 students to queue up overnight for their investment bids. Does it sound plausible to you? Me neither...

Ahhh that makes sense then.... well from a certain point of view.

I mean now the headline makes sense, not the crazy people staying out in the cold. Does smack of a publicity stunt.

Has anyone else heard these whispers about a reduction in HMO licenses?

I hear the odd thing about folks in Marchmont et al moaning about students making noise and now the city are supporting these new UNITE student accommodations that are going up.

I assume this means that at some point there will be a reduction in HMO licenses granted which should cause the scummier landlords to sell up when they can't get tenants. I am hoping there is a glut of them on the market in say.... oh two years.

Have you seen the size of the ESPC property list in the past few weeks - normally it's not that thick in june/july never mind January.

There are stories every year of some small flat fetching a fantastic price - usually purchased by a cash rich buyer from down south - dont try to gauge the market based on one sale.

I agree. I get e-mails from ESPC (just so I can keep an eye) and before Christmas I had had nothing for several months. Now I'm getting something nearly everyday. The prices still seem high to me though; they haven't started to come down yet.

So far all the flats advertised have been ones in pretty good nick. I'm waiting for the ones that are 'in need of refurbishment' because those will be the forced sales. The ones I've been getting e-mailed all look like ones that people have purposely done up to sell on. Many of them don't have furniture in the photos and all have new kitchens.

Don't think there'll be a crash in edinburgh, just think it'll cool a little, which is perhap already evident.

I also don't think it's going "crazy" at the moment either. There's a lot of properties on the market, and that includes new builds.

130K for a 1 bed in the centre of town has been the norm for a while. The fact that the seller priced it at £95K may have been to attract interest and
not necessarily people are going mental trying to buy a 1 bed flat. The centre of town is going to be far more stable that areas out of the way. These might be the places that good/better opportunites might arise to get on the ladder at a more reasonable level, but you'll sacrifice having to live in suburbia.

I walked pass my local remax today, it was nice to see 2 estate agents sitting, literally, with their head in there hands looking at their computer screens. But they get their own back when I think about the amount of commission they've made over the last few years. I haven't bothered to go into ask them how business is because, like every estate agent, solicitor, financial advisor and mortgage broker in the land they want to keep the hype going to fuel their professions.

Ah well. Time will tell.

Much to my irritation, as I’m keenly waiting for signs of a crash here, it seems that tenement flats in Marchmont/Bruntsfield are going like hot cakes at the moment. They are nearly all offers over, at prices significantly up on last year, and the ‘for sale’ boards quickly get ‘sold’ stickers plastered over them. Even one larger flat, which appeared in late February at offers over 295K and then changed to 390K fixed price, now has a sticker on the entryphone saying ‘flat now sold – no more viewings’. Supply does not seem to be increasing, as only a handful of flats appear on the market each week, and a handful seems to be sold at the same time.

The important thing that will not be clear for a few months, when the sale prices appear on the Internet, is how much these properties are actually going for. A year ago, two-bed tenement flats were typically offers over 225K, but many sold for over 300K. Now they are advertised at all kinds of prices, with 235K being the absolute minimum, but although they are selling quickly, maybe the margin over the ‘offers over’ price is much lower than a year ago.

I thought I was inured to this kind of thing, but every so often the reality of the situation strikes home: there are lots and lots of people who are quite willing to pay £250,000-£300,000 for a two-bed flat in Edinburgh. It's mad. Who are these people? Where are they getting the money come from? Doesn't it occur to them that it's not terribly good value for money? What on Earth is going on?

Its not all bad in Edinburgh:

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/viewdetails-196...=1&tr_t=buy

25th Mar 2008 * Price changed: Offers in Excess of £3,750,000 £3,500,000

Damn! If only I hadn't bought that KitKat earlier ...

If you look at the full brochure (complete with a video with audio commentary) you'll see that it's number 2 Ettrick Road. A quick look at Nethouseprices reveals that it was last sold on 23rd August 2004 for £1,940,000, so the seller's looking for a profit of over a million and a half pounds in less than four years. It's money for old rope, isn't it? I see that it was also sold on 18th April 2003 for £1,830,000, so the previous owner only made a paltry £110,000 profit in 16 months.

Edit: Ooooh! It's got a majestic orangerie. Haud me back!

I've just been told its the home of the chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Edit: I can't confirm this though.

It's Trevor Matthews from Standard Life: link.

My mate has just reluctantly sold a large 3 bed flat at the top of easter road for £172,000. Initally they expected near 200k but got a shock when valued at 180k, and they were then further surprised by how few came to view it. It was a nice place. Looks like the market is cooling to me.....

ex of Standard Life, off down South to (try to) rescue Friends Provident

3 beds top of Easter Road will soon be £60,000. Your mate is lucky to have found some very thick buyers with access to money.