Press Articles « Property News from Saint Property

The Sunday Times Scotland, Grand Scottish Pads are set to go cheap by Peter Laing 26 September 2010
Thursday, September 30th, 2010

Luxury properties in the Scottish countryside could fall in price by as much as a third in the coming year, offering the prospect of a millionaire life-style to middle class buyers.

New research has revealed a glut of top-end properties worth a total of at least £300m. Properties worth £1.5m upwards are taking an average of eight months to sell and some have been stuck on the market for two years.

One expert is predicting an increase in interest rates in the next 12 months which could force sellers to slash prices by 30%, providing a bonanza for buyers.

The research was carried out by Saint Property Search and based on country houses, estates, farms, forest and rural businesses where the asking price was at least £1.5m.

The research, which excluded Edinburgh, found 91 luxury rural properties currently on the market with a combined value of more than £250m. Matthew Sinclair, a director of the Edinburgh based firm, estimated that if privately advertised properties were included it would increase the national total by as much as £80m.

The research suggests the national total is steadily growing by about £10m a month as more properties come on to the market and fail to sell quickly. The total value of estates for sale was £101m, country homes accounted for £113.1m, farms were £36.7m, forests were £6.5m and rural businesses £4.1m.

The area with the most luxury property for sale is East Lothian, at £48.4m. This includes, Scott Estate, Dunbar, which Sinclair said had been on the market for 18 months at a price of about £20m.

Perth and Kinross is next, with luxury property on sale worth a total of £33.2m, followed by Fife at £26m and Argyll at £24.1m. Kincardineshire, by contrast, has just one luxury property for sale at £1.5m, according to the research. Lanarkshire is just ahead at £1.6m.

Sinclair said: “The average time on the market is eight months and if you drill down into that figure it tells us that much of the property is over-priced. The country house market seems completely static. Some of the prices being asked for are what they would have sold for at the peak of the market.”

He said many sellers had little incentive to drop their prices because interest rates had stayed so low for so long. But he added: “I suspect there is pretty strong inflation in the system and interest rates will need to move.”

Sinclair said any increase in interest rates, which he suspects could happen within 12 months, could persuade some sellers to drop prices by as much as 30%, a better reflection of their true market worth, he said. “With that amount of property on the market, the opportunities are there. Many are on at the wrong price but that could be forced to change.”

That could mean a property at the £1.5m end of the market becoming available for £1m.

The Scotsman Moving Matters, As high-flyers migrate, prices of high end property is under pressure. 23 September 2010
Thursday, September 30th, 2010

As senior business figures warn of a “bankers’ exodus” from Edinburgh to London, some property commentators are predicting that the result will be an over supply of top end property, with continued pressure on prices.

It has been reported that senior employees in the banking industry who have until now divided their time between the Scottish and English capitals are spending an increasing amount of time in London, taking the trappings of their luxury lifestyle with them.

Two in three Edinburgh homes worth £1 million or more are thought to be owned by senior bankers.

Matthew Sinclair, Director of Saint Property, says: “A migration of bankers and leading figures from associated professions, such as accounting and insurance, to London would certainly have a weakening effect on the property market, causing a ripple effect from the top down.”

Research by Saint Property suggests Edinburgh already has a good supply of property for sale at the top end, which will only increase if the anticipated departure of top earners takes place.

Saint Property’s research shows there are currently 26 properties on the open market in Edinburgh with an asking price of £1.5 million or more, worth a total of over £50 million.

The average price of one of these properties is just under £2 million. The highest number of properties in this price bracket can be found in Edinburgh’s central New Town, and the highest average asking price per square meter can be found in the leafy southern suburb of the Grange.

But the number of properties in this price bracket would be significantly higher if homes being sold on the private market were to be taken into account; in Edinburgh these off-market sales have been a common way for deals at the top end of the market.

According to Sinclair: “Expats living in the Far East are the most likely to take advantage of an over supply and subsequent drop in prices. Those seeking a base in the UK for a holiday home or a family home to return to will find an excellent choice of top-end property in Edinburgh and value for money in terms of price per square meter.”

Meanwhile, according to Peter Strang Steel of Strang Steel Property search, there may well be a surge in rural properties coming to the market too as a result of the Government’s proposals to restrict the use of “loss relief” – one of the most attractive tax breaks for holiday homes.

The Scotsman, £256m homes glut as rural sellers hold firm. Jeff Salway. 25 September 2010
Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

MORE than £265 million worth of rural property lies unsold on the Scottish market as sellers refuse to lower their asking prices, it has been estimated.

There has been a £10m increase in the past month in the value of rural properties on the market with an asking price of £1.5m-plus,

according to research by Saint Property. More than 90 country homes, estates and farms have been on the market for an average of eight months, including eight in East Lothian at a total value of nearly £50m.

Matthew Sinclair, director of Saint Property, said country houses were currently the hardest to sell, primarily because they are often overvalued.

“There remains a significant difference between what people will pay and what the sellers will accept. Unless we see price reductions then the bottom line figure of available property will simply grow.”

However there is demand for rural homes from several quarters, including Edinburgh, the south of England and the Far East. “This is encouraging as there are certainly purchasers dipping their toe back into the water, however they are doing it with caution,” said Sinclair.

“They have been monitoring the market and they see plenty of property unsold or re-advertised so they are in no great rush to move.”

And the number of high end properties struggling to sell could continue to rise if a housing market double-dip materialises, as looks increasingly likely. Lending figures published by the British Bankers’ Association and the Council of Mortgage Lenders this week showed a further decline in activity in August, with mortgage advances slipping to a 10-year low for the month.

“We may see stock sold at the backend but there is plenty lining up to take its place,” said Sinclair.

“It is difficult to say what sort of asking price reductions we need to see, but where property has seen the asking price reduced by 30 per cent or more, it has normally generated the interest to sell.”

But Simon Rettie, managing director of property management and sales company Rettie & Co, disputed the downbeat picture painted by Sinclair. “The average property in that area of the market is taking longer to sell than a couple of years ago but good properties are selling in a reasonable period of time,” he reported. “There has also been an increase in cash transactions happening on a private basis.”

Rettie said his firm has already sold more £1m properties in September than in the rest of 2010 combined. But Sinclair believes there is an oversupply of high-end properties in the capital. He warned earlier this month that an exodus of bankers from Edinburgh to London and other financial markets would weaken the capital’s housing market, causing a ripple effect from the top-down