Buyers snapping up £1m homes in Edinburgh’s college site off plan

EDINBURGH continues to attract buyers to residential properties worth more than £1 million with a new upmarket development securing a number of sales off-plan.

Apartments being built on the 18-acre grounds of the former Donaldson’s College in the Edinburgh New Town Unesco World Heritage Site are being snapped up.

Sales, mostly by buyers based in Scotland, at The Crescent development by Cala Homes (East), which has 11 homes priced from £599,000 to £1.9m, have reached £7.7million six months before the development is to open with show homes for on-site visitors.

The Edinburgh developer has secured eight reservations off-plan from a sales office at The Balmoral Hotel. It said further sales look likely to be confirmed in the coming weeks.

Phillip Hogg, sales and marketing director for Cala Homes (East), said Edinburgh is becoming increasingly renowned as a “property hot-spot”, partly down to the city’s thriving financial and technology sectors bringing in investment and wealthier business-people, further fuelling demand for high-end homes.

The development is close to the city centre on the grounds of the William Playfair-designed Donaldson’s College. The A-listed building was a children’s hospital and school and its most recent use was as a school for deaf children. Mr Hogg added: “Now is a great time to be buying a premium home in Edinburgh.”

Early sales at The Crescent come as a recent report showed Edinburgh has the second fastest selling times in the UK for properties over £1m, with supply struggling to match demand.

A report from estate agency Knight Frank last month revealed a 16 per cent rise in sales in the £1m sector in Edinburgh in 2017 compared with the previous year in Edinburgh.

The success of the development comes after Cala Group reported record profits and revenues in 2017 for the fifth successive year. Over the 12 months to the end of June 2017 its pre-tax profits were up 14% to £68.5m.

In March, insurance giant Legal & General Group agreed to a £605m takeover of Cala when it acquired the 52% of the housebuilder it did not already own.

In April, Alan Brown retired as chief executive of Cala Homes. Group finance director Graham Reid has taken over until a permanent replacement is found.

Now is a great time to be buying a premium home