Property

The average house price in Edinburgh rose by 2.8% annually last month, according to figures from the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC). The average price of a property sold during February stood at £200,126, up from £194,678 during the same month last year. The rise marked the sixth time in the last seven months during which an annual increase had been recorded in the Capital.

Edinburgh's housing market ended 2009 in better health than a year ago, according to the ESPC's report for the last quarter of 2009, with the average house price up from £193,354 to £218,043, an annual increase of 12.8%. The average house price in Edinburgh has now increased annually during each of the last five months of 2009, reflecting a trend seen across the UK.

The latest monthly statistics from the ESPC show that home owners in Edinburgh continue to benefit  from record low interest rates. House prices in Edinburgh rose by 15.4% annually to £221,875, according to the ESPC statistics for October.

Three multi story blocks at Gracemount bit the dust yesterday after schoolboy Robert Millar lit the fuse to demolish the buildings. The three blocks were originally built in 1962 and contained 246 flats. Garvald, Soutra and Fala Courts will be replaced by 220 new modern homes.

Latest statistics released by ESPC reveal that the property market in Edinburgh is beginning to stabilise thanks to continuing record low interest rates, a stamp duty holiday until September, and a sense that economic conditions are improving.

Statistics for the second quarter of 2009, released by the Edinburgh Solicitor and Property Centre (ESPC), show that the average house price in East Central Scotland decreased by 11.0% annually during the second quarter of 2009.

Edinburgh has seen the largest population increase of all the Scottish Council areas in recent years, according to latest government figures.

A new map, produced for the Scottish governement, has been released which shows areas of Scotland that have the highest levels of the naturally-occurring radioactive gas radon. The survey, based on tests of 19,000 Scottish dwellings, has been published to help homeowners identify whether they need to take any action.

Considering that in the past sixty years the university has allegedly been responsible for the demolition of many Georgian buildings, it is refreshing to hear that the recently completed Informatics building at Potterrow has won a Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyers Scotland Award.

The average Edinburgh house price has fallen by 6.8% annually in the first three months of 2009, according to statistics released today by the ESPC.

The Scottish Government today announced it is expanding The Open Market Shared Equity scheme to the whole of Scotland. An increased budget of £60 million - up from £24 million in the pilot launched 18 months ago - is expected to help around 1,500 households to buy through the scheme this year.

Mountgrange Capital, the organisation behind the controversial £300 million Caltongate luxury hotel, retail, and residential development in Edinburgh Old Town have announced that they have gone into administration.

One of the effects of the massive evaporation of easy credit both in Britain and around the world in recent months has been deflation. In 2009, Britain is expected to officially enter into its first deflationary period in 49 years when the Retail Price Index, which measures the price of goods and services, drops below zero.

Edinburgh's housing market may be finding its feet again, following a reduction of Bank of England interest rates to 1%, the lowest level in its 315 years, a stamp duty holiday on properties under £175,000 until September 2009, and a rapid fall in the capital's property prices by a fifth of their mid-2008 peak.

Buying or selling a house in Edinburgh? Looking for a place to rent? Or just looking for information about a building, or history of some Edinburgh architecture. This is your starting point. (N.B. for hotels, B&Bs, self-catering, etc. see the Edinburgh Accommodation section.)

After a 63 year absence, The Edinburgh Riding of the Marches is to be re-launched at noon on Monday 9th February.

The credit crunch has not been kind to recent buyers of property and there may still be more downward pressure on house prices.

The average house price in Edinburgh now stands at £193,354 after falling 10.1% in the last year, said the Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre today. While this is a bigger fall than the house price drop across East Central Scotland, where the average price fell 8.5% to £181,527, Edinburgh has managed to avoid some of the pain experienced south of the border.

One of Scotland's leading solicitor estate agents forecasts that the housing market will start to show the first signs of recovery when the Bank of England levels out interest rates.

According to a new study by the BBC and Sheffield University, Edinburgh is the loneliest place to live in the UK. In "Changing UK: the Way We Live Now" researchers compiled and rated areas across Britain using official statistical data from the Census to show how Britons are more demographically segregated "than at any time since the computerisation of census data (1966)."