Relocation to Scotland

[Chipsdontlie]

Has anyone moved from England to Scotland and sold a property to do so? I know the Scottish property market is different and I think we'd need to have exchanged before offering. I'm trying to work out what the pitfalls are. The Scottish housing seems to sell very quickly and complete much quicker than England. I'm worried that we could lose our lovely house here and then be stuck without a property in Scotland. We can't rent as we have a large dog. Reason for moving is to be nearer family. Thanks in advance

I think the biggest potential pitfall is the “offers over” system and in a hot marker people will bid ridiculous amounts over this, and over the valuation price. You can only get a mortgage up to the valuation price so anything you bid over that needs to come from cash.

Hello everyone, husband and I are planning to relocate in Scotland around year 2024-25 and to start a family in Scotland. We are from England (Though not English people, we are Asians, Filipinos and working for NHS) the area we lived in here in England is Kingston Upon Thames and surronding areas of Wimbledon, Hampton, Teddington, Surbiton. Ideally we are looking for places not very far from Edinburgh and should be accessible transportation (Bus, Train or Car) and have at least same quietness of the area we are used to here in England. Our budget is not that high as well and we are flexible between 3-bedroom homes either terraced, bungalow, detached, semi detached as long as the area is not rough. Any suggestions will be much appreciated. Thank you!!

I live in Scotland. The best value places to look at are the Scottish Borders (Galashiels and Tweedbank have train stations), West Lothian (Linlithgow, Livingston, Bathgate have train stations) and Fife (Burntisland, Kinghorn, Kirkcaldy have train stations). Most properties are advertised on the ESPC web-site, although Your Move don't use this so a property through them might be easier to get, as less people will have seen it.

@happysunshine8 i would get jobs first as that will determine where you need to commute to, and a budget would be useful beyond “not very high”. A lot could change in the housing market by then.

All the places mentioned are 40 mins to 1 hour train ride to Edinburgh

Yes we did. The systems aren’t really that different , exhange of contracts vs conclusion of missives . The Scottish side was a lot more straight forward for us , took 6 weeks (but there was no chain either side). The English side was a shit storm, took months as we were in a dreadful chain full of arseholes. Decided to break the chain and went into an Airbnb while the Scottish purchase was getting sorted.

You may find that Scottish estate agents are very keen to know that you’ve exchanged contracts, or that it’s imminent.

yes usually offers over and sealed bids in Scotland, although not always. We had to offer 10% over to secure our purchase.

But if you’re working in an NHS hospital setting then being on a train into Edinburgh city centre isn’t particularly useful because the hospitals still a good bus ride out of the city …..hence why you need to know where you’ll be working before you look for somewhere to live.

new train station in Reston opens up Berwickshire - commute in 38 mins to Edinburgh on east coast mainline.

(We have a cat and found that airbnbs sometimes accept pets)

In Scotland here and for our last 2 houses it’s been about 6 weeks from putting in offer to moving day. generally once missives are concluded there’s no pulling out-if someone were to do that they would be liable for costs. Gazumping is also rare.
The local estate agent/solicitor will have a good idea of what properties are going for, if over the home report value etc-it can vary a lot depending on the the area I’d say.

I should also say that the moving date is usually negotiable so depends on both yours circs I guess. We wanted to move asap as had already sold our own and the house we were buying was vacant so they wanted it through fast too.

I’m an estate agent in Scotland. One of the first questions you’ll be asked by an estate agent here is whether or not you have sold your current house, or where you are in that process. Scottish conveyancing tends to move much quicker with missives concluding happening earlier in the process. You can’t conclude your purchase here if you haven’t exchanged there and if you’re trying to do it all together it can be a nightmare. That said. my area has a lot on people moving from England and post covid it’s gotten easier because the Scottish conveyancing system has, to be frank, gotten pretty shit and is taking longer, bringing time frames more into line with those in England.

Offers over isn’t the drama people think it is. We have home reports here which contain an independent valuation by a qualified chartered surveyor. If I have a house with a value of £200k the asking price is o/o £199,000, to try and achieve that value. Last summer prices were going mental because there was such a shortage of property coming on, prices going 50% over value wasn’t unusual. Each area is different but where I am it’s much more settled now, if a house has a Closing Date (sealed bids) then prices typically go quite a bit over (a closing date is not the time to try your luck with a cheeky offer) but other wise houses tend to sell at or around HR value.

Send me a message if you have any questions OP, happy to offer any advice if I can.

In the process now. Only way we could do it was to sell our house and buy independently.

so we are.

im buying a new build near the highlands and well sell his sometime over the next few months.

if we had to sell to buy, we’d have to sell and move into rented or a caravan.

modt Scottish properties won’t accept an offer from an English sale unless exchange has already happened