THE LUXURY LOOKOUT

When the rich and famous want to quietly acquire a Highland estate or Edinburgh townhouse, they turn to Sheona Gordon. Rosie Morton met Scotland’s fabled property finder

Sheona Gordon finds dream homes for A-listers

Dorothy was absolutely right. There really is no place like home.

Imagine, though, if she’d clicked her ruby slippers to find she’d been handed the keys to a luxurious castle with a private loch. Might she have felt differently in a Georgian mansion with a secluded walled garden? Or perhaps in a converted barn flooded with natural light, overlooking a dozen acres?

While properties of this ilk may seem fit for a fairy tale, it isn’t too far removed from reality for Sheona Gordon, founder of The Edinburgh Property Search Company.

Sourcing luxury properties for the country’s financial tycoons, A-listers and household names, Sheona turns the key to Scotland’s most extraordinary properties on a daily basis. And more often than not, she gains access to them before they’ve even hit the market.

‘I’m lucky that I’m working with people who have enough money to buy something really special,’ says Sheona. ‘And that’s what they want; something that they can’t open the paper and find.’ With her discerning clients prepared to pay a premium to view properties before anyone else, her role is to work closely with top agents who can offer houses fit for Scotland and the world’s elite.

‘I’ve found houses with home cinemas and swimming pools,’ says Sheona, recalling that she has bought hundreds upon hundreds of extraordinary properties over the years, and has even sourced a home for one of her very own idols. ‘I had another client who bought a beautiful house – a French chateau – and they put in a lake with a bridge over it.’

Sheona’s work is highly confidential; not only is she sworn to secrecy about who she works for, her clients are also obliged to keep mum about the places they’ve visited. ‘If they see a property,’ she explains, ‘and it’s not for them, they won’t discuss it with anybody else. If it then goes on the market two months later, nobody will know that we’ve actually had the chance of it first.’

Though most of her clients own second, third and even fourth properties, Sheona tends to be given the task of finding them their main family home, and it isn’t uncommon for her to be given free rein on budget. ‘People with that kind of money are careful how they spend it,’ she points out. ‘While