Edinburgh transactions of £750k or higher
The table shows the number of transactions per month in Edinburgh that are equal to or greater than £750k. The threshold of £750k has been selected as it is the breakpoint at which the highest rate of LBTT becomes payable. As can be seen from the table, the number of such sales in 2019 has exceeded that of 2018 in five of the first seven months of the year. We anticipate that the July 2019 total will increase as further data from the Registers of Scotland become available. This will then leave February 2019 as the one month with a total less than in 2018. However, February 2018 was something of an exception, with 9 new-build properties in the same development in Morningside, Edinburgh – all priced above £750k – coming onto the market in that month.
For the first six months of 2019, Edinburgh has seen 149 sales in excess of £750k, compared with 113 in the first six months of 2018 – this represents a 32% increase. The Capital is therefore seeing an increase in the purchase of its top-valued properties. In part, this is due to homeowners moving away from London and its suburbs to more ‘affordable’ areas in the UK such as Edinburgh. In addition, the Sterling exchange rate has currently been falling, which makes owning a property in the UK more attractive to foreign buyers.