Scotland takes the lead as the UK’s prime market performer

Edinburgh and Glasgow may be just 47 miles apart, but each has its own distinct character and rich, tumultuous history. And it is thanks to the demand for real estate in both these cities that Scotland is now the UK’s top prime market performer.

Edinburgh, founded in the seventh century, boasts the world’s biggest arts festival, a castle, a palace, medieval streets and handsome Georgian squares. Glasgow, which can trace its beginnings back even further, to the sixth century, has a wealth of Victorian domestic and mercantile architecture.

Despite the economic and geopolitical conditions that have hit values elsewhere, prices are stable in these ever-evolving cities. This reflects the growing realisation for many that a property in either location can be a base from which to travel easily to London or overseas, or a permanent home, given the buoyant employment opportunities.

Edinburgh’s key businesses are banking, fund management and law, but fintech is also a fast-emerging sector. Glasgow is also the long-term base for many leading finance and insurance companies, but many tech and creative businesses are headquartered there, too.

As a result, international buyers are flying in – from the USA, Austria, China, Hong Kong, Ireland and Singapore, as John Forsyth of Savills Edinburgh and Peter Walker of Savills Glasgow report. They have seen continued demand for city-centre townhouses and family homes in the suburbs, with a wide variety of properties now available. In some instances, multiple bids are being received on the same property.

Education is a particular draw for those shopping for homes north of the border, according to Forsyth and Walker. Prices are particularly strong in the streets around the top state and private schools. Higher education is another reason to relocate: Edinburgh has four universities; Glasgow has three.

“In the first nine months of 2023, there were 292 transactions of £1m-plus in Scotland, against 155 in the same period of 2018,” says Faisal Choudhry, Savills head of research for Scotland. “In Edinburgh, there were 146 such sales, which compares with 94 in 2018.”

Glasgow also fared extremely well. “In Greater Glasgow, there were 56 £1m-plus transactions, more than double the number in 2018,” says Choudhry. “Greater Glasgow takes in the suburbs, but also the prime parts of East Dunbartonshire, South Lanarkshire and East Renfrewshire. In fact, Glasgow has been the UK’s top performer of 2023 so far, in terms of prime value growth.”

What kinds of houses are performing well? “The focus of £1m-plus activity in Edinburgh are the Georgian terraces and squares of the New Town, and the suburbs of Merchiston, Morningside, Murrayfield and Grange, which is famous for its 19th-century turreted villas,” says Forsyth.

In Greater Glasgow, meanwhile, £1m-plus sales are concentrated in the West End of the city – the leafy neighbourhoods around the University of Glasgow, Kelvingrove Museum and the 85-acre Kelvingrove Park. “House hunters have also been bidding up prices in the sought-after suburbs of Bearsden in East Dunbartonshire, and Newton Mearns in East Renfrewshire,” Walker adds.

Both cities are on the up. Some Glasgow properties are fetching £3m or more. And industry is returning: warships are once again being manufactured on the Clyde and new developments are springing up beside the river. Over in  Edinburgh, which was once viewed as a little staid, the opening of the Gleneagles Townhouse hotel on St Andrew Square, with its rooftop bar and members’ club, suggests a new vibe in the New Town – to the excitement of locals and aspiring buyers.

Meanwhile, the regeneration of Glasgow’s Victorian and 20th-century commercial buildings into elegant spots to work and play is hotting up with the conversion of the Parish Halls building on central George Street, which will become the first Soho House in Scotland. It’s yet another example of the way Edinburgh and Glasgow are rapidly overturning perceptions of every kind.

Pictures from top: a view over Edinburgh (unsplash); the Clyde Arc bridge in Glasgow (Getty); Gleneagles Townhouse; and Glasgow Science Centre (unsplash)