Fife property market off to a good start in 2019

The Fife property market has sprung into action as it embarks upon the busy spring selling period.

Property consultancy Galbraith is reporting on their latest residential results for the Fife market, covering the first quarter of 2019 ending 31 March.

The firm’s Cupar office conducted 29 per cent more viewings, 25 per cent more market appraisals and 58 percent more applicants registered with the firm this quarter compared to the previous three months.

George Lorimer, who heads up property sales and lettings for Fife said: ‘These figures reflect the hard work conducted during the first three months of the year, preparing to launch a good volume of high-quality stock to the market for Spring. Over the past three weeks we have been extremely busy bringing lots of fantastic new properties to the market.

‘This has resulted in buyers coming out in force from all over the country and offering aggressively to secure the sought-after lifestyle properties we specialise in handling.

‘The market is now highly competitive with several properties being put to a closing date and selling very well. We even have high value properties selling within 24 hours of going live to market, so currently things are very active indeed. Now is certainly the time to market your property before the anticipated delayed Brexit affect hits the area again in the Autumn.

‘We are seeing buyers coming from all over the country as well as abroad who appreciate all that the beautiful Kingdom of Fife has to offer. Coastal and also rural properties with up to around nine or ten acres of land continue to attract a lot of demand.’

The average price achieved for properties sold by the firm in Fife during the first quarter was £463,000, up significantly from the same quarter of last year which averaged £298,813.

For Galbraith across Scotland as a whole, sales were up 16 percent year-on-year for the period 1 January to 31 March 2019. On average the firm handles £54 million worth of property sales per quarter for Scotland as a whole.

The residential lettings market in Fife is also proving extremely strong with a greater demand for premium properties being experienced by Galbraith.

Geoff Laird-Portch, head of lettings for Galbraith in Cupar, said: ‘On the whole the lettings industry remain very positive. We are certainly experiencing a greater demand than in previous years and as such are struggling to meet this demand with a lack of good quality stock coming to the market.

‘Rents are on the rise which is more good news for landlords and when a property goes live on the rental market, we are matching it up with suitable tenants ready to move in no time at all.

‘A trend we are witnessing is higher demand for large premium family homes and rural properties with land, as some people are choosing to rent whilst waiting until the Brexit affect has come to a conclusion before purchasing in the area.’