AN increase in "super-commuters" who cash in on Scotland's property market while continuing to work in London has been recorded by property experts.
Tempted by large period homes, good schools and value for money, estate agents say a new breed of buyer is relocating the family home north of the Border while retaining lucrative jobs in the south.
Savills, in its autumn report into Scotland's prime residential property market, said the number of sellers based in England searching for Scots properties has more than doubled in the past year.
It comes as the north-south house price divide widens, according to Office for National Statistics figures published this week.
Andrew Perratt, head of Savills Residential Property in Scotland, said people were looking for the quality of life, including access to the "lochs and glens", but that the gulf in property values had proved to be the most compelling argument for the super commuter.
He said: "As the temperature of the London's prime property market soars, the yawning gap between London and Scotland has never been greater. This is making the move north a sensible option for an increasing number of people.
"There is real rise in the number of super-commuters - those buyers currently living in London but moving to Edinburgh or Glasgow in order to take advantage of good schools, larger accommodation and value for money."
The ONS figures showed London properties recorded the largest year-on-year price rise in July, at almost 10%, while prices in Scotland dropped by 2%. A typical house in London is now worth £438,000, while the average home in Scotland is valued at £182,000.
Even in some of Scotland's most expensive areas, prices are well below those expected in London.
Savills said buyers in the London suburb of Fulham would pay more than three times more per square foot than they would in a comparable Edinburgh suburb.
Buyers with a budget of between £500,000 and £750,000 could buy a detached house in the EH10 postcode - which covers the Morningside and Bruntsfield areas of the Scottish capital - at a price of £361 per square foot compared with a two-bedroomed flat in SW6 at £1151 per square foot.
A comparison of the popular suburbs of St John's Wood in London and Pollokshields in Glasgow shows an even wider gulf, with London buyers paying up to 10 times more for the same space.
Mr Perratt said air travel between Scotland and the south of England was often cheaper than commuting by train between London and its outlying commuter areas.
The report also noted some of those who bought a larger property in Scotland frequently used their equity to reduce their mortgages.
Almost 75% of prime property transactions in Scotland take place in the three market hubs of Edinburgh, Aberdeenshire and Greater Glasgow, but Faisal Choudhry, Savills' head of research in Scotland, said more outlying areas were beginning to see benefits.
"Prime transactions in Tayside have increased this year, fuelled by the strong Aberdeenshire market. Similarly, prime activity in Stirlingshire has bounced back, led by improving markets in Edinburgh and Glasgow," he said.
"There is still room for further improvement in a number of traditionally sought-after prime provincial locations like Argyll and Ayrshire."
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 hereComments are closed on this article