Increased demand for Edinburgh townhouse offices

Purchasers plan conversions from offices to residential use as leases expire

Article posted: 25 Oct 2011

The townhouse market in Edinburgh has seen a steady level of demand in this year helping Ryden to complete five transactions totalling over £6.4m during the last six months. The most recent deal occurred this month involving the sale of two adjoining townhouses at Moray Place.

Acting on behalf of a private trust, Ryden sold 31 & 32 Moray Place, extending to 18,750 sq ft of office space in Edinburgh city centre, to a private individual at a value just in excess of the £3m asking price. The townhouses are one of the few remaining in commercial use at Moray Place and are currently let to a firm of solicitors. The purchaser acquired the property for his personal pension plan and as a commercial property investment. It is likely that the properties will be converted back to residential use upon expiry of the tenants lease in 2014. Eight offers were received for these townhouses at the closing date, demonstrating the depth of interest in the heritable townhouse market.

The four other transactions that took place this year were the sales of 1 North Charlotte Street for continued use as offices; 23 Rutland Street for conversion from offices to residential; 3 Drumsheugh Gardens (598 sq m) also for conversion from offices to residential use and; 18 Rothesay Place (657 sq m) for mixed residential / commercial use.

Charles Guest at Ryden commented: “The heritable townhouse market has steadied during the last six months.  We have been receiving a good level of enquiries for townhouses for both conversion to residential use and also owner-occupiers for continued use as offices. We currently have six other townhouses on the market or under offer at 17 Thistle Street, 10 Alva Street, 16 Young Street, 6 Melville Crescent, 19 Atholl Crescent and 65 North Castle Street and, if current enquiries are anything to go by, I’m confident that we’ll be announcing more deals soon.”

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Posted by Jo