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In the July 2008 Issue of Property Investor News
Edinburgh Regeneration
Over the last few years Edinburgh has undergone a transformation from being something of a provincial backwater towards reasserting itself as a modern European capital. The property market here has proved to be one of the fastest rising in the UK. However, in this report we will focus specifically on regeneration activity, both ongoing and planned, here in the capital city of Scotland.
First a little background: Edinburgh is only around half the size of Glasgow in population terms, but is still the seventh largest UK city. The population is growing steadily. Edinburgh City Council figures show that it reached 457,830 in 2005, including 100,000 students. Around 13m visitors and tourists arrive annually, which equates to over 35,000 per day!
Unlike Glasgow, Edinburgh was never a major manufacturing centre - so scope for post-industrial regeneration is somewhat less marked than in other large cities. Education, health, retailing, tourism and finance are major employers. Edinburgh claims to be Europes sixth largest financial centre. The city is also one of the most prosperous parts of the UK, with several districts among the richest 500 areas.
Prospects for future growth in the local economy are positive. Experian forecasts for annual GDP growth up to 2011 show that Edinburgh is expected to outperform the UK and Scottish average. Average annual output in the city is forecast to grow at 3% up to 2011, compared to 2.3% for Scotland as a whole and 2.8% for the UK.
State of the Property Market
Of late Edinburgh has been at the forefront of the fast rising Scottish property market. House prices have risen 99% in the last five years. The latest Halifax/Bank of Scotland House Price Index records that the average property in Scotland now costs £145,531. This is 25% less than the UK average of £194,893. Scotlands prices rose 5.3% year-on-year to Q1 2008 (UK 1.1%), although the increase in the quarter itself was only 0.2% (UK was down 1%).
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