SCOTLAND’S property market is bouncing back from the 2008
recession with record numbers of homes being sold for premium “offers over” prices across the country. 

Both Glasgow and Edinburgh have experienced a surge in demand forcing buyers to bid up to 20 per cent above valuations. 

In some areas the number of homes now being marketed at “offers over” has soared by 10 per cent since 2007 levels.

Property experts are attributing the trend to new confidence inspired by a rise in earnings. 

Edinburgh in particular is enjoying a purple patch, with figures from the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC) suggesting as many as 83.8 per cent of properties from the first quarter of the year were on sale at “offers over”.
That compares with pre-property crash levels in 2007 when the figure was 72.9 per cent and in 2004 when it stood at 76.5 per cent.

ESPC’s business manager Maria Botha Lopez said Edinburgh
property owners were now achieving sales in excess of 5.8 per cent up on Home Report valuations. In all, 62.4 per cent of homes sold in the city between February and April this year topped the official valuation figure. 

She said: “One of the reasons we are seeing this high number of
properties marketed as offers over is that sellers have greater confidence in the market, and know that they can achieve a selling price over the Home Report valuation.”

MOV8 Real Estate business manager David Marshall said they had witnessed a steady return to confidence, and predicted room for further improvement.

He said: “There has been a steady increase in offers over properties,

particularly in the past three years, returning to levels not seen since 2007 to 2008. However, the premiums being achieved are still lower than the 25 to 30 per cent over the asking price that we were seeing in those days.”

In Glasgow, the offers-over market is matching pace with that of Edinburgh. 

Figures released by the Glasgow Solicitors Property Centre showed the rate of offers over in quarter one of 2015 stood at 74 per cent. But so far this year, that has climbed to 83.4 per cent for the same period. 

Faisal Choudhry, director of Scottish Research at Savills, said this strength in key areas was having an effect in and around Glasgow. He said: “Glasgow’s west end and urban areas in particular, are experiencing strong demand and this is helping lift other areas including Lanarkshire, Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire where there are more opportunities, and potentially better value.”

Dr John Boyle, director of research at Rettie & Co Ltd, said: “In 2008 one in three offers would have to be 20 per cent on top of the price offered to secure a property. By 2009 that was down to one per cent and in some cases achieved only the asking price or below.

“That didn’t start to recover until 2014 and the last two years or so where we’ve seen a lack of supply, an increase in wages, mortgages becoming easier to secure, with buyers looking at offers of five to 20 per cent to secure the property.”