Estate agents rap slow market claim

Local estate agents have hit out at claims Aberdeen’s housing market is the slowest in the UK, branding them “utterly ridiculous”.

Property firm GetAgent said homes in the Granite City are the least in-demand of anywhere in the country.

It used nationwide estate agent data to say only 14% of properties in Aberdeen changed hands or were placed under offer in the first three months of the year. It said the UK average was 60%, with areas such as Glasgow almost reaching 75%.

The firm said Aberdeen has “consistently ranked as one of the lowest UK locations for buyer demand”, mainly pointing the finger at the 2014 oil price crash and the impact it had on thousands of livelihoods.

GetAgent said it aligned with “similar” trends seen in other areas, such as former coal mining towns, where one industry played a major role in everyday life.

But the company’s findings have been called into question by estate agency Aberdein Considine, which said the “utterly ridiculous” report was painting the region as “some kind of post-industrial property wasteland”.

National estate agency director Alan Cumming has pointed to official data, which said property sales of £240 million were recorded in the area over January and February – behind only Edinburgh, Glasgow and Fife.

He added: “We sell one in four properties in the north-east and, of the homes we have on the market right now, we have 25% under offer – almost double the average suggested in this report.

“In Aberdeenshire, one-third of the homes we have on the market have a sale agreed.”