Overseas Buyers Own More Than a Third of Edinburgh's Quartermile Properties

Edinburgh's Quartermile district sits between the historic Old Town and The Meadows park.

Glass and steel towers surround 19th-century sandstone buildings from the site's past as a hospital. Visitors among the new offices and luxury apartments might feel they could be anywhere.

Registers of Scotland data reveals that more than a third of properties there went to overseas buyers. Of 751 titles, 263 registered to addresses outside the UK, including 95 in Hong Kong.

These sales form part of more than 5,000 offices, hotels, homes and shops across Edinburgh where buyers listed non-UK addresses at purchase.

Scotland's land register holds 28,825 titles, or 1.4% of the total, with owners based outside the UK. Edinburgh accounts for 18.7% of those.

Built on the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh site, Quartermile spans a quarter-mile. The project drew criticism for its tall glass towers and because it followed the hospital's move to a poorly connected site on the city edge.

Offices there house Skyscanner and major law firms. Flats have sold well.

In Quartermile's EH3 9G postcodes, 369 titles went to Scotland-based buyers or firms, 119 to other UK addresses and 263 overseas. Overseas sales reached 44 countries or crown dependencies, including Russia and the Cayman Islands. Hong Kong led with 95, followed by 51 in Singapore and 12 in Malaysia.

Many flats appear to have gone to international students, their families and global investors.

Edinburgh rents rose 59% over the past decade to an average £1,509 monthly, per Citylets. Quartermile units cost more to rent or buy than similar properties.

A senior manager at an Edinburgh residential firm, speaking anonymously, attributed this to location. "It is in an unrivalled central location for the university and city centre, so there is a premium for that," the manager said. "You have then seen those prices sustained or normalised as such and that does eventually feed into the city's wider market. It is no surprise Quartermile is popular with overseas buyers, it looks and is priced like developments these people will have seen in other cities like London. It also cannot be detached from a wider shift in the city towards high end markets, where you have so many more expensive hotels and restaurants and the like."

Architect Malcolm Fraser, who serves on the Common Weal think tank board, said Edinburgh would benefit more if Quartermile remained the main hospital site. "It's no surprise that Quartermile has become a hot-spot for speculation," he said. "Scotland's economy is one of the most foreign-owned in Europe, with the result that huge amounts of profit flow out of our energy, agricultural and other sectors. And, in this lovely corner of the capital, the rising values that flow from the success of the Quartermile are spirited out the country."

As of December 31 last year, Edinburgh had 5,385 titles with non-UK owner addresses. These include hotels like India Buildings on Victoria Street, leased to Virgin Hotels, and 12 Princes Street properties.

Eleven offices in Charlotte Square, near the first minister's Bute House residence, belong to a British Virgin Islands firm. Argyle House, a 1960s brutalist block near the Grassmarket, is owned by a Luxembourg firm that recently proposed demolition for a hotel, flats, offices and shops.

The true overseas ownership total is likely higher. Only 56.1% of Edinburgh titles are on the electronic land register; many remain on the Sasine Register.

Househunter Leah Bryce works with wealthy overseas clients seeking homes in Scotland. "I work with people where it is not about second homes or buying something as part of an investment portfolio, it's very much about making Scotland their home," she said.

She often buys properties without clients viewing them. US interest leads overseas buyer origins in Scotland. "I think for each of them it's slightly different but essentially the political stance over there [in the United States] is probably a common theme as to why they want to relocate over to Scotland," she added. "But, generally, I think Americans in particular have a very strong connection with Scotland in general - and obviously Edinburgh is the capital."