The double height space living room with large windows and floor to ceiling white walls makes space for Mies van der Rohe’s Barcelona chairs, a luxurious leather sofa and contemporary works of art.  A colour palette of white, black and red let the art work stand out.

The flat accommodation comprises a hallway with a gallery over looking the open plan lounge/kitchen.  There are two double bedrooms, one with a large walk in wet room fitted with sleek white tiles and a large mirror.  The property also benefits from having an open plan state of the art fully fitted kitchen, open plan study, 2 dressing rooms, large cloakroom and utility room.

To keep it all warm, there is gas central heating.

But now it’s let, so that’s it.  This unique property was snapped up very quickly.

The preferred method of purchase is to one buyer or a consortium.

Bruce Rae Property will manage letting and estate management.  The legal aspects of buying the development will be handled by Lindsays WS and finance can be obtained through Heritable Limited if required.

Interested parties should email Colin McCallum colin.mccallum@heritableltd.co.uk;
or call 0845 644 5853.

In Scotland, Energy Performance Certificates are required from the following dates:

• Properties put up for sale – 1 December 2008
• Rental properties – 4 January 2009

Energy Performance Certificates must be made available whenever a property is constructed, rented or sold. Properties put up for sale must have a certificate which is no more than 12 weeks old at the time the property is first put on the market. All landlords must provide prospective tenants with a certificate which is no more than 10 years old at the point the property is marketed. The certificate must be displayed in the property in a suitable location.

The certificate gives a rating for the property, showing its energy efficiency and its environmental impact on a scale from A to G in graphical format (where A is the most efficient and G the least efficient). The average property in the UK is expected to be bands D-E for both ratings.

The certificate recommends ways to improve the property’s energy performance to help save energy, reduce bills and cut carbon dioxide emissions. The cost of the measures recommended vary, but the certificate distinguishes between those that cost under £500, such as installing energy saving lightbulbs and loft insulation, and those that could cost more, such as double glazing or new heating systems. Finally, it lists further measures that will help achieve the highest possible rating for the property, but which could be expensive and will take more than seven years to repay their cost in energy savings.

For clarity Energy Performance Certificates are only required for properties that have are marketed from 4 January 2009 which means that if your property is already tenanted by this date then you do not need to get a Certificate until after that tenant vacates and the property is remarketed.

Source:  www.epclothians.co.uk

The finale of the Santa Stroll event marks the end of a 14-month project, though traders will only get a temporary reprieve.

Contractors will also return next year to lay out cobbles to mark where the city’s gallows – once used to execute hundreds of people – formerly stood.

Council chiefs plan to power wash the Grassmarket’s cobbles once the worst of the winter months is out of the way. Any snagging problems with the redevelopment will be addressed in January.

Improvements to make the Grassmarket more pedestrian-friendly have included extending pavement cafe areas, relocating parking spaces and the creation of an events zone.

The project has come in on budget but did face a number of delays because of poor weather, a break for the festivals and a battle over the loss of trees from the street.

Traders welcomed the end of construction work after a difficult year.

Jos Bastiaensen, chairman of the Grassmarket Area Traders Association, said: “If you consider we have had huge water works, the Cowgate fire and the West Port building collapse in such a short period of time then quite a lot has happened to depress trade in this area.

“We are entering the recession from quite a low point but I think this will be a huge boost for all of us. It is not just the physical space that has been changed, I think this will also change the area’s standing in the city.

“It has been a bit of a long haul because it was a complicated project but I think we have a real asset for Edinburgh here – a huge public open space serviced by dozens of cafes, bars and restaurants.”

Among the other improvements was the building of underground recycling facilities, installing decorative direction signs and laying Caithness stone among the trees in the new events area.

Source: Edinburgh Evening News 13 December 2008

With the nature of Edinburgh’s buildings, in particular the height of the tenements on the High Street, the New Town where there are also double uppers should Lothian & Borders Fire Brigade not be given appropriate equipment to reach all these types of buildings?

If you would like to share your opinion on this with me please email me at Elspeth.Rae@brucerae.co.uk

At the same time, the average one-bedroom flat has risen just 0.4 per cent in the past year to £141,597.

As the credit crunch continues, first-time buyers and buy-to-let investors are dropping out of the market, leaving small properties increasingly hard to shift.

This time last year the value of a one-bed flat had shot up 17 per cent in a year. But an increasing proportion of high-value large homes on the market means the average price is still rising.

Gillian Black, partner at solicitors’ firm A & WM Urquhart, said the situation was the worst she could remember. “The last time it was this bad was before my time. I started in the early 1990s and I imagine that, in Edinburgh, probably the last time it was as bad as this was before that,” she said.

“It’s difficult to predict what’s going to happen – I’m not expecting very much to happen this year and I imagine that we could be looking into some time next year before we get back to normality.

“Even then, we’re not going to see these premium Edinburgh prices.”

She said that the drop in the market for smaller properties was a direct result of the credit crunch, and was hitting sales of the smallest properties the hardest.

“Borrowing is a problem and first-time buyers are finding it difficult. They’re having to find bigger deposits and don’t have resources, and the investors are disappearing,” she added.

“We normally see the same developers noting interest in doer-uppers, and recently they’ve stopped even doing that.”

The figures were published by ESPC, and the company’s business analyst David Marshall said:

“The number of properties on the market this time last year was just over 4000 – now we’re looking at 6300.”

Meanwhile, the number of homes sold has halved, with 1156 completed last July and just 503 in the same month this year.

The number of properties being sold at a fixed price has also increased. Traditionally, a third of homes on the market were advertised as fixed price, but that has now risen to 60 per cent.

Also, 60 per cent of properties offered at a fixed price went for below the asking price.

‘Last year my flat would have sold in a week’MIKE STOANE, 41, runs a lighting design company, and is trying to sell his former home, a one-bedroom flat in Graham Road, Bonnington.

He has twice dropped the price of the newly-decorated flat, which has views of the Castle and Calton Hill, and has shown 20 potential buyers around without any of them making an offer. He said:

“I was going to put it on the market (last August], but I had someone say they’d like to rent it out for six months so I held off.

“It turned out to be a really stupid idea because the property market collapsed.”

The house was initially on sale for offers over £99,000, with Mr Stoane hoping to receive £135,000.

He dropped the price first to £125,000 fixed price and is now asking £115,000 fixed price.

He added: “It’s been on the market for two months now, whereas this time last year I think it would have sold in about a week.”

Source: Edinburgh Evening News, 13th August 2008

It is part of the ongoing Renewable Heritage project, which aims to demonstrate the feasibility of incorporating renewable energy into older properties.

The solar panels would provide renewable water heating for all of the flats in the buildings, with each of the panels connected to a specific flat.

It is also proposed to have energy monitoring equipment to provide details on just how much power is generated by the solar panels.

Lister Housing Co-operative said that having the solar panels installed on tenements would help towards the city’s aspiration to be the most sustainable city in northern Europe by 2016.

Source: Edinburgh Evening News, 13th August 2008

The Edinburgh Solicitors Property Centre (ESPC) has also recorded the first fall in the average price of property in 37 years.

The average cost of a home in the city last month was £201,517, a year-on-year decrease of 6.5 per cent.

David Marshall, business analyst at the ESPC, said the rise in fixed price sales was an inevitable result of the market slowdown.

He said: “It is more enticing if the seller has a clear idea in mind of exactly what price they are after.

“If selling at ‘offers over’, some sellers will put a lower selling price to attract interest while others will put a property on at a higher price in the hope that they achieve a higher selling price. Fixed prices offer more clarity in a market where there are a higher number of sellers than buyers.”

Of the 400 sales in August, 243 were at fixed prices.

Last year, just 28 per cent of sellers of fixed-price homes accepted an offer below the original asking price. This had risen to 60 per cent by last month.

“It reflects the change in the market,” said Mr Marshall. “Demand is down and it is constrained by lending and affordability.

“Buyers are aware that sellers are facing increased competition from other sellers and are aware that, if their bid fails, there will be other options out there for them.”

And experts are forecasting that further price deflation of between five and ten per cent will be seen for the next 12-18 months, with the average price expected to dip well below £200,000 before the end of the year.

Ron Smith, chief executive of the ESPC added: “Typically it takes people much longer to respond to news that the market is cooling than it does for them to react to news of rising house prices, so the fact that we are already seeing evidence of this sort of change in behaviour is good news for the long-term health of the market.”

The Government announcement that the threshold for stamp duty is to be increased to £175,000 instead of £125,000 was designed to breath new life into the property market.

But property agents do not expect it to revive the Edinburgh market. Scott Brown, an estate agency partner at Warners, a member of the ELPG group of property solicitors, said that the announcement would help encourage those who have held back awaiting the new policy to now make a decision.

But he added: “Back in 1992 they raised the threshold to £250,000 and now, 16 years later, they have not increased it to the same limit.”

We put it on the market then.. nothing
Christina MacMillan, 28, and her husband Andy, 29, have had their two-bedroom house in Upper Craigour on the market since June 1.

The couple had the house valued at £155,000 but decided to put the house up at £140,000 fixed price for a “quick sale”.

She added: “We had one viewing on the Sunday after we put it on the market and then nothing.

“Eventually we dropped the price to £132,500 and agreed to pay stamp duty – which obviously doesn’t mean anything now as stamp duty has been suspended for all properties below £175,000.

“I called our lawyer today who advised us to keep the offer as it is and give the buyers some money, or drop the price again.

“Since we dropped the price we’ve had quite a few viewings but no confirmed buyers.

“Andy and I discussed it and if we don’t get any interest in the house by the end of the month then we’re going to put it up for rent.”

Source: Edinburgh Evening News, 3rd September 2008