Bruce Rae - Property Management

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Welcome to our March 2010 Newsletter

I am delighted to launch our new website www.brucerae.co.uk. We have introduced different services over the years as requested by our clients and these services are now detailed in the Website. Please take a look at the site and give me your feedback. If I can be of further assistance to you please do not hesitate to contact me.

Elspeth Rae (Elspeth.Rae@brucerae.co.uk)

£112m to make Forth Road Bridge ‘world’s most expensive bus lane’

A FURTHER £112 million is set to be spent retaining the Forth Road Bridge for just 300 vehicles a day, it has emerged. Bridge bosses have committed to a huge programme of improvements over the next 15 years on top of expected annual running costs of around £5m – even though just a few hundred buses will end up using the crossing.

The existing road bridge is set to become a “public transport corridor” once a new crossing is opened to traffic in 2016.

Critics today said the low levels of predicted traffic meant the bridge was set to become the “world’s most expensive bus lane”, costing the equivalent of £114 per vehicle.

According to figures produced by Transport Scotland for a series of public exhibitions, the new bridge will carry 92,000 cars every day in 2017, with more motorists crossing the Forth due to improved journey times.

Since the abolition of tolls in 2008 all funding for the existing bridge has come from the Scottish Government, with a £112m capital plan for improvements including cable dehumidification and tower strengthening work committed to over the next 15 years.

Lawrence Marshall, chairman of the ForthRight Alliance, which is campaigning against the new bridge, said: “Given the amount of money being spent on retaining the original crossing, it would be the most expensive bus lane in the world by a long, long way.”

He added that growing numbers of cars on the new crossing would lead to pressure for the older bridge to be opened up to all forms of traffic.

“It’s inconceivable that you could have a position where people are sitting in traffic jams on the new bridge looking across at the old bridge going largely unused.”

Transport chiefs managed to shave around £2 billion off the original £4bn price tag for the new crossing by dropping plans for a bus or tram lane and reducing approach roads from three lanes to two in 2008.

Margaret Smith, Liberal Democrat MSP for Edinburgh West, said the scheme as it stands had been “cobbled together” as a “cost-cutting exercise”.

She added: “The level of traffic on the old bridge means there’s going to be an absolute clamour for both these bridges to be opened to general traffic.

“That would lead to an increase in the road traffic coming over the bridge and into Edinburgh.”

A spokeswoman for Transport Scotland said: “Ministers took the decision to retain the existing Forth Road Bridge for public transport and this has allowed the development of an operationally flexible, narrower, replacement crossing of high quality at a lower cost.”

Source: Edinburgh Evening News 25 January 2010

Conclusions of the Year End Review 2009 Edinburgh Housing Market Monitoring Report

There was a period of stabilisation in the Edinburgh residential property market towards the end of 2009. Volumes remained around 420 – 440 a month towards the end of 2009 after a fall over 2008. Prices rose slightly after falls in 2008. New mortgages approves have been rising, albeit they are at a historically low level.

However, affordability of property is at a low. In the region of six times the annual pay of a single full-time worker. Demand for local authority City of Edinburgh housing is high, around 139 bids for every property available is received. 2 bedroom local authority City of Edinburgh properties are particularly in demand.

Unemployment has almost doubled between the start of 2008 and the end of 2009 and there is historically low level of vacancies advertised.

It is unlikely that there will be an improvement in affordability of residential property in the city. There is a fundamental lack of supply of housing stock. What will affect the housing market in the coming year is the level of income growth, the unemployment rate and the levels of bank lending. Demand for property in Edinburgh is there, as demonstrated by the pressures on social housing, it is the purchasing power of that demand that will affect the housing market.

To read the Report in full www.edinburgh.gov.uk/housing marketmonitoringreport

Source: www.edinburgh.gov.uk

Extract from ESPC House Price Report – Q4 2009

Overall trend of incremental improvement in the housing market continues.

An increase in the proportion of larger properties selling helps fuel a 12.8% annual rise in the average house price in Edinburgh. Rate of increase also higher as comparison is against market lows recorded during Q4 2008

Average house price in Edinburgh increased annually during each of the last five months of 2009.

Over 1,300 property sales were recorded in Edinburgh during the last three months of 2009 – an increase of 57% on the same period in 2008.

45% of properties sold at Fixed Price achieved the asking price during Q4 2009 compared with 26% in Q4 2008.

Prices during 2009 were supported by low interest rates and a shortage of supply of homes to the market 2010 expected to see home values remain flat, whilst the number of homes selling will increase compared to 2009.

David Marshall business analyst with ESPC concluded: “On one hand, we are likely to see a continuation of increasing demand from buyers as lending restrictions are eased somewhat and confidence continues to return to the market. Offsetting this however is the prospect of a rise in unemployment during 2010 coupled with the likelihood of an increase in interest rates over the medium term. There will be some fluctuation from month-to-month, but broadly speaking the outlook is that homes values will be broadly unchanged over the next 12 months as compared to 2009 levels.” To read full report visit www.espc.com

Source: www.espc.com

Surveyors report continued rise in house prices

House prices across the UK have risen for the fourth straight month according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS). The net balance of surveyors reporting rising rather than falling house prices over the preceding three months rose to 35% in November – the strongest reading since November 2006.

The rise in prices was fuelled by a continued excess of demand from buyers over supply of properties to the market. Although new instructions from sellers rose for the sixth consecutive month, the rate of increase continued to trail behind the increase in new enquiries from buyers. Expectations for future price growth also remained positive. A net balance of 28% of surveyors expected prices to rise rather than fall over the next three months.

David Marshall, business analyst with ESPC, commented: “The results of the most recent survey from RICS are in line with recent trends. Although activity is picking up across the board there continues to be an excess of demand over supply and this has resulted in house prices inching upwards in recent months. As we move into the new year we are likely to see a further increase in activity while prices remain broadly unchanged on recent levels.”

Source: www.espc.com