Tag: DM Hall

Capital, just capital: The Edinburgh housing market remains a law unto itself

DEMAND FOR GOOD FAMILY HOMES KEEP PRICES BUBBLING

As the old year slips away, home buyers and sellers – as well as property professionals – can look back on 2024 as one of those rare interludes when supply and demand came more closely into alignment, resulting in fewer dramatic ups and downs (writes DM Hall’s KIRSTEN NICHOLSON).

And, although the last month of Q4 is typically quieter than the rest of the year, transactions have still been taking place around Home Report value, with an encouraging number achieving up to 10% over, after going to very good closing dates.

Such deals remain the exception, however, and we are nowhere near the post-Covid boom period when numbers between 10% and 20% above Home Report went unremarked. Closing dates are not as common as in the past with good sales generally being driven by single buyers who come to a mutually acceptable personal arrangement with a willing seller.

There is a significant and ongoing demand for family homes, with people looking for more room and outdoor space in suburban areas close to good school and in easy-living modern developments, both inside and out of the city bypass.

The big challenge, which is definitely throwing grit in the wheels of a more fluid market, is chains. What Scots used to view as a quaintly English phenomenon is becoming more common as buyers find they are not selling in time to commit to a purchase.

These hiccups are exacerbated by the fact that bridging finance, which used to solve this problem, is now virtually impossible to obtain, and people are being advised to not even think about concluding missives until their own are tied down and unshakeable.

The fashion for making an offer subject to the sale of your own property is not helping here, since sellers are imposing unrealistic timescales – sometimes just a number of weeks – for buyers to come up with the goods.

Flat transactions, for so long the reassuringly reliable engine of the local market, have taken a bit of a beating in the past year as buy-to-let landlords cut and run in the face of a storm of legislation which has persuaded many of them that the game is no longer worth the candle.

Concerns about tax relief and a regulatory regime which seems heavily weighted in favour of tenants will not be helped by the two per cent increase this year of Scotland’s Additional Dwelling Supplement (ADS), which now adds eight per cent to the total purchase price of extra properties.

There are exceptions, of course. ADS is not diminishing enthusiasm for upscale apartments such as those at New Eidyn, in the St James Quarter “lifestyle destination”, where cash buyers have been attracted from London and abroad as moths to a flame.

And large lateral flats in the £750,000-plus bracket, in prime Edinburgh suburbs, are seeing good business from downsizers who are selling bigger homes and still trousering a handsome profit.

But in general, there are an unusual number of empty ex-rental flats on the market, and this is likely to remain the case as building and labour costs have eroded the attraction of a “doer-upper”, and buyers now seem to sniff at anything less than move-in condition.

Joppa and Portobello, with their panoramic views across to Fife, are currently very popular, boasting solid Georgian homes, good state and private schools and access to the golf courses and attractions of East Lothian.

Gullane and North Berwick are perennially in favour. Formerly fast-moving areas such as Bruntsfield and the New Town are less so at the moment, largely because of the factors mentioned above affecting the flats market.

The most recent Office for National Statistics report puts the average price for a house in Edinburgh at £347,000 – a country mile ahead of the rest of the country and more evidence of the fact the capital remains a market unto itself.

It was to be expected this year that a General Election and a Budget would cause some jitters, and they certainly slowed Q4 of 2024 down a bit – so it could well be reasonable to look for quite a substantial bounce in the quieter political waters of 2025.

That is not to say that we will necessarily see house prices shooting up, but we can be fairly certain that they won’t be dropping.

Kirsten Nicolson is a Director in the Edinburgh residential offices of DM Hall Chartered Surveyors.

McKirdy’s Steakhouse is on the market

A popular Edinburgh city centre steakhouse has been brought to market by DM Hall, one of Scotland’s leading firms of chartered surveyors, as a result of the owner’s impending retirement.

McKirdy’s Steakhouse, located at 151-155 Morrison Street, and close to Haymarket and Edinburgh’s economic hub, has traded for 24 years.

Offers over £450,000 are invited for the business which is supplied by McKirdy Butchers, which has been active in Edinburgh and East Lothian since 1895.

Morrison Street, a busy one-way thoroughfare which connects Lothian Road with Haymarket Terrace/West Maitland Street, carries a substantial volume of traffic on a daily basis being one of the main arterial routes out of the City Centre towards the West.

The area is mixed residential and commercial in nature and adjacent to it there are a number of other restaurants and public houses. The Edinburgh International Conference Centre and various hotels are located a short walk from the premises.

McKirdy’s Steakhouse, which has recently been re-furbished, is arranged over the ground floor. The frontage incorporates large display windows providing good natural light to the restaurant.

The restaurant business, which has a reputation for the very highest quality meat available and trades from Wednesday to Sunday, is reluctantly being brought to the market as a result of retirement, its success is reflected in its profitability.

Margaret Mitchell of DM Hall who is overseeing the marketing process, said: “This is a great opportunity to acquire a successful, busy and readily managed restaurant with an established reputation.

“Its location, on the edge of the soon to be completed Haymarket Edinburgh development, an impressive £350m mixed-use development which will include hotels, retail space and offices will bring further investment and buzz to the area. As a result, any future owner will benefit significantly.

“Our client is seeking offers over £450,000 including goodwill, fixtures and fittings. Trading accounts are available upon request to seriously interested parties. Viewing is strictly by appointment and arrangements can be made by contacting me, Margaret Mitchell MRICS, Surveyor, on 07919574184 or Margaret.mitchell@dmhall.co.uk.”

With 24 offices and over 250 members of staff including 24 Partners, DM Hall this year celebrates 125 years since its foundation in 1897.

Short-term lets: professional advice is ‘the only real safeguard for owners’

As Edinburgh tightens the net on Airbnb-style short-term lets, what are the options for property owners and landlords?

By Calum Allmond

It was always on the cards that if restrictions were to be introduced on short-term letting in Scotland, Edinburgh would be first out of the blocks. And, sure enough, the council last month introduced a city-wide “control zone”.

The capital, which for obvious reasons is the country’s tourist Mecca, has become a magnet for Airbnb-style short-term lets over the last decade, leading to concerns about housing shortages and perceptions about anti-social behaviour.

Under draft proposals which will now go to Scottish Government Ministers for final approval, property owners will soon need planning permission to be able to operate short-term lettings and will have to apply for a change of use certificate from the planning department.

What is less well known is that the council has always had the power to require planning permission in the event of a material change in environment, such as short-term rentals. The difference is that, from now on, this will be mandatory.

It should be noted that the proposals only apply to secondary lettings, i.e., properties which are not an owner’s primary residence. People will still be able to let out their homes while on holiday, or rooms in their home while they remain in residence.

However, while the new restrictions appear to be forging ahead, it still remains unclear what policies the local authority will eventually apply. The current Development Plan – the overarching guide to future council thinking – makes no mention whatsoever of short-term lets.

Nor, surprisingly, does the document designed to replace it, the City Plan 2030, which again does not concern itself with the issue – making it increasingly difficult for property owners to plan ahead.

One can only speculate at the moment about whether permissions will be granted for continued short-term use, and on what grounds. Nor is there any clarity about whether numerical limits will be imposed.

Were there to be limits, it would be reasonable to assume that applications would be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, so landlords hoping to remain in the market might be advised to act sooner, rather than later.

There is, of course, an existing provision in law whereby if a short-term let has been operating for more than 10 years, with no action against it by the council and no action to conceal its operation, then it is entitled to a Certificate of Lawfulness to continue operation, though necessary evidence will be required.

As of the start of this month, there have been nine applications so far this year for planning permissions for short-term lets, only two of which have been granted – and they both involved Certificates of Lawfulness.

What to do if applications fail is clearly now a matter of immediate concern for property owners and DM Hall’s specialist rural arm Baird Lumsden is currently embarked on an information campaign around the sales, letting and management options which remain open.

It has gone into the issue in depth, in anticipation that Highland Council will be the next authority to impose short-term let restrictions around the Badenoch and Strathspey area, and is reaching out to concerned parties.

Informed and impartial advice of this nature is something of a port in a storm for property owners who are caught between a rock and a hard place as the restriction net tightens.

There has been anecdotal evidence of landlords exiting the short-term market and moving to longer lets in the private rental sector. But regulation in this sphere of activity is getting stricter all the time, and the imminent New Deal for Tenants will do nothing to ease landlord pain.

On a superficial level, it is easy to understand the council’s hope that properties taken out of short-term lets will find their way back into the housing stock, thus easing ongoing shortages.

But a counter-argument, articulated by bodies such as the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, is that lack of house-building is as much of a contributory factor to shortages, and that short-term lets bring in huge volumes of valuable tourism revenue to the city.

As things are, some smaller operators may indeed be forced to sell up and quit the market, although larger letting concerns will almost certainly continue to jump through the necessary hoops.

In this volatile environment, expert professional advice is the only real safeguard, and prudent property owners and landlords will seek it out as timeously as possible.

Calum Allmond is Head of Architectural Services at DM Hall Chartered Surveyors.

For further information, contact DM Hall Chartered Surveyors, 27 Canmore Street, Dunfermline KY12 7NU. T: 01383 621262. E: dunfermline@dmhall.co.uk.

W: www.dmhall.co.uk http://twitter.com/dmhallLLP.

For further information about DM Hall’s nationwide network, please contact:

Caroline Wayte, Marketing Manager

M: 077863 62517

DM Hall, 12 Bothwell Street Glasgow G2 6LU

E: caroline.wayte@dmhall.co.uk

W: www.dmhall.co.uk.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmhallllp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dm-hall?trk=biz-companies-cym

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DM-Hall-Chartered-Surveyors-LLP-168316039915372/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmhallsurveyors/

Husband and wife team at DM Hall oversee surge in firm’s business sales arm

As one of the few husband and wife teams working in the specialist surveying sector of business sales and valuation with DM Hall, Margaret and Jonathan Mitchell see eye-to eye about their ambitions for their revitalised department.

But there is scope for difference of opinion on some matters. Asked if they take work home to the kitchen table, Jonathan emphatically replied: “Yes!” At the same moment, and equally emphatically, Margaret said: “No!”

The fact that they then both burst out laughing perhaps reflects the comfortable nature of a relationship which is introducing a new dynamism into the Scotland-wide firm’s business sales and valuation department.

Since the Edinburgh-based team took on responsibility at the beginning of the year for the division, which advises clients at national and local level on valuation, sales, and acquisitions, it has boosted both completed and pipeline sales.

The speed at which they have reinvigorated the department – Margaret moved over to the department in March this year and Jonathan returned to DM Hall after several years in the wider UK – has parallels in their own relationship.

They met while working at DM Hall in Fife and, in a classic whirlwind romance, became engaged to be married within 10 days.

“Although our working life might come up as a subject of conversation at home,” said Jonathan, “it is not all-consuming and, certainly in the office and in our dealings with clients, we maintain a strictly professional demeanour.

“But obviously, we know each other well, and that makes it so much easier to work together as a cohesive team, with shared ambitions and aims, for the benefit of our clients.”

Although Scotland is still very much in the recovery phase from Covid, the business sales market is vibrant and continues to display healthy signs of activity and volume, said Margaret.

“Most market sectors, particularly including licensed and leisure, were impacted by the on-off shutdowns over the past year and a half and, now that restrictions have been lifted, there is a surge in turnover since people are just desperate to get out and spend.

“With this sudden profitability, many businesses are refilling their financial coffers and paying back loans, but many business owners are also reflecting on where they want to go in life and concluding that it is a very good time to sell.”

Retirement is a significant driver in DM Hall sales, which tend to specialise in individual businesses, and the department has developed a niche in understanding the emotional bonds which owners build up over decades of business life.

“Many of our clients have invested blood, sweat and tears in the building of their businesses,” said Margaret, “and it can be a life-changing event to have to dispose of it, or hand over to the next generation.

“Part of where we fit is to listen and to understand their concerns. That is a key component of our brand. We provide professional, strategic advice, whether it is selling, buying or valuing, but we also have a comprehensive and detailed local knowledge and an unrivalled network of contacts throughout the country.

“We are not a call centre, with one-size-fits-all responses, and neither are we jacks of all trades. We understand the local market, the integral importance of profit and loss and the professional and personal imperatives of our clients.”

While at the moment in the marketplace willing sellers in search of willing buyers are in the ascendancy, the Mitchells argue that businesses which used the hiatus of the pandemic to refurbish, put training schemes in place, take the opportunity to trim costs and generally put the wheels in motion to reposition their offering will continue to thrive and will see greatest demand if presented to the market.

Meanwhile, despite kitchen table differences of opinion, the Mitchells agree about one thing: that the business sales and valuation department of DM Hall has a bright and sustainable future!

Jonathan Mitchell is an Associate RICS Valuer and Margaret Mitchell MRICS is a Chartered Surveyor in the Edinburgh Commercial office of DM Hall Chartered Surveyors.

For further information, contact DM Hall Chartered Surveyors, 17 Corstorphine Road, Edinburgh EH12 6DD. T: 0131 477 6000. E: edinburgh@dmhall.co.uk.

W: www.dmhall.co.uk.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dmhallllp

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dm-hall

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dmhallsurveyors/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dmhallsurveyors/