A BARONIAL mansion built in 1872 which boasts its own woodlands and tennis court has been revealed as the most expensive home sold in Scotland this year.
Hillwood House, near Edinburgh, changed hands for more than £3.5 million in a year when sales of million pound properties nosedived after changes to tax laws added a greater premium to their purchase.
The four-floor, category C listed building, tops a list of the 10 most valuable homes sold north of the border this year compiled by estate agent Savills.
Once home to the MacKinnon family of Drambuie fame, the house was sold by upmarket estate agents Strutt & Parker and is believed to be biggest sale in Scotland since the housing market crash in 2007.
In second place was a townhouse in the exclusive Aberdeen neighbourhood of Rubislaw Den, which sold for £2.7m, followed by a large family home in Edinburgh's Merchiston area which changed hands for just over £2.5m.
Overall, Scotland's capital was home to four of the most expensive property transactions of 2015, which were all to be found in the east of the country.
Additionally, there were three in Aberdeen, one in Aberdeenshire and one each in Longniddry, East Lothian, and St Andrews, Fife, where a home which would be of special interest to golfers went on the market.
The Wynd, in the university town's Grannie Clark's Wynd, boasts views overlooking the 18th fairway of the world-famous Old Course, giving the owner a grandstand view of the Open Championship when the event comes to town, and the four-bedroom townhouse was sold for £2.5 million, putting it at fourth place on the top ten list.
On the west coast, separate figures show that Bearsden and East Renfrewshire remain the home of top-end property with a house in the suburb's Ledcameroch Road selling for £1.5 million while one in Giffnock changed hands for £1.4 million.
Overall, there were 165 residential sales in Scotland valued at £1 million and above between January and October 2015.
This figure makes 2015 the third highest in terms of the annual number of sales in this price band since 2003.
The purchase of Hillwood House, however, may soon be dwarfed by a deal for Kirkton park, a property near Gleneagles hotel in Perthshire.
It is believed a sale in the region of £7m has been agreed although has not as yet been completed.
Sales in 2015 peaked before the introduction of the Scottish Government's Land and Buildings Transaction Tax in April, which replaced stamp duty with a higher level of taxation on the sale of homes at the top end of the market.
As a result, there was a surge in transactions before the enforcement of the new rates, with 121 taking place place before April with the remaining 44 taking place under the LBTT system, half the number sold during the same period in 2014.
Faisal Choudhry, Director of Residential Research at Savills Scotland, said: "It is important to remember that the high number of sales this year was mainly due to changes to property taxation in Scotland that came into force in April 2015.
"These changes, under the new Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), have resulted in higher levels of taxation compared to the rest of the UK at the top end of the market."
He added: "Our research on the million pound market has revealed the wide gap between sales in Town locations versus Country locations.
"At 88 per cent, the majority of million pound sales have taken place in city hubs and regional hotspots, with only 12 per cent taking in remote country locations.
"Proximity to facilities, amenities, schools and employment opportunities makes the purchase of prime properties in town locations a necessity compared to country locations where it is more of a lifestyle choice."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel