Property sales in St Andrews and Fife are looking strong

Property consultancy Galbraith says Scotland’s property love affair with St Andrews and the East Neuk of Fife is continuing.

The firm reports that premium houses are selling well in Fife, as it has recorded an uplift of 17.6% in the number of properties priced above £500,000 sold over the past year in the region.

George Lorimer, who handles property sales and lettings for Fife said: ‘The market for higher value properties is certainly improving and there is keen interest in desirable family homes in good locations. Sales of property priced at £500,000 or above have increased – more of these are being brought to the market and when they do come on, they are selling much more quickly than in the past. The real hot-spots, after St Andrews, are around Cupar and the East Neuk.

‘Part of the reason is that the strength of the market in Edinburgh and St Andrews pushes up demand – and prices – in neighbouring areas. The East Neuk has always been a popular seaside destination but now it is increasingly fashionable, with great independent bars, shops and restaurants. Cupar is also a really lovely place to live and, like the East Neuk, benefits from some lovely traditional architecture and appealing house styles.

‘The new Queensferry Crossing and the renaissance of Dundee, based on the fabulous V&A, are real driving forces for this region. We have recently sold Holmsdale in Cupar for offers over £499,000, the Old Coach House near Newburgh for offers over £650,000 and Melville Manse in Anstruther for offers over £1.15m, which are typical of this positive trend.’

Highlights from Galbraith’s quarterly analysis for its Cupar sales office include:

• Sales up 5% year on year;
• More properties came to the market — up 5% on the same quarter in 2017;
• The number of prospective buyers registering with Galbraith in Fife increased by 65% year on year;
• The average time taken to sell fell by 7.3% to 41 days, with the fastest sale being achieved within two weeks;
• 85% of buyers were from Scotland; 12% came from the rest of the UK and the remaining 3% were international buyers.

Galbraith has a network of 11 offices throughout Scotland. The firm enjoyed revenue growth of 8% during 2018 and profits rose by £84,000 to £2.3m. Sales were also up, by 10%, for the whole of 2018 compared to 2017 across Scotland as a whole. On average the firm handles £54 million worth of property sales per quarter.