What can I actually afford in Edinburgh?

[UserNameNameNameUser]

I am looking to move back into Edinburgh, having been rural for a number of years. I’m just trying to figure out what I can afford based on current property market.

Last time (25 years ago!) that I looked in Edinburgh “offers over” was up to 50% over.

I am lucky to have a £1M total budget including stamp duty and fees, so assuming I will be spending about £900k on the house, but does that mean I should be looking at houses marketed as offers over £850k, or offers over £600k? It makes a big difference as to what areas I should look in.

Look at the home report value. Offers over is just to generate interest.

Talk to a property solicitor, they will have much more up to date information than people on mumsnet (unless they themselves are Edinburgh property solicitors or deeply involved in the Edinburgh property market).

Houses with gardens in desirable areas of Edinburgh been going for 20% over offers over price for last couple of years.
Hopefully property market cooling down now

@UserNameNameNameUser very hard to answer at the moment, I think probably around offers over 700k? What sort of property do you ideally want? And in which area are you most wanting to be?

Thank you, that’s very helpful.

I’ve seen a lot that I like around the £900k mark in the Marchmont/Morningside/Merchiston area, so at 20% over they would be going for close to £1.1 which might be achievable with a stretch. It wouldn’t be if they are going for 50% over though.

Looking for a 4 bedroom with garden.

I've just discovered that Rightmove has a section where you can see sold prices - about two month time lag but can help figure out what places are actually going for. Search by area.

You can also look here

scotlis.ros.gov.uk/

I think it just depends. My mum has just sold and it was offers over £200k and she only got an extra £5000. The house she bought was valued at £210,000 and she’s bought it for that.

There’s 4 up for sale in my street all different prices and my friend offered £10k over the offer price only to be told they wouldn’t accept less than £40k over. The house isn’t worth it. She’s bought somewhere else now but they came back asking if they could accept her offer and she said no.

When viewing I’d ask what they wanted for it. That’s what we did when I viewed my mums new place.

I think at the upper end, the market may be a bit thinner with fewer people able to afford. There is viewed as a shortage of “family homes” at the moment though

You may already be aware but not everything will be covered by rightmove, you will need to also check espc. Some use one and not the other depending on a few factors.

Hi OP interested to hear how you got in with this?

I’ve just posted about what I could maybe get for £500-600k in Edinburgh and didn’t even know about the offers over thing!!

Stamp duty is astronomical for the higher end properties, and there had been a shortage of them of late so prices have still been holding up.

We decided to go with a new build so that we knew exactly what we were going to be paying. I just couldn’t take the uncertainty of it all otherwise.

There are quite a few really nice ones at the moment including the higher end of the market - Camo/West Craigs on the outskirts (towards the airport), The Crescent and Newington Residences more central (all by Cala) and Craighouse Homes near Marchmont/Morningside (by the same company that did Quarter Mile).

I did have to get over my “new build snobbery” where I was thinking that all new builds would be small and basic.