Thousands of shrewd Irish people realise the value of investing in property overseas. But understandably and quite rightly, people are cautious about where to put their hard-earned money.
Edinburgh is proving to be a magnet for Irish investors, both in residential and increasingly commercial property, who want to make their hard-eared money work for them. Unlike many other countries they are being persuaded to look at, Scotland is only a short flight away. And of course there are cultural links spanning hundreds of years.
A growing number of investors in Edinburgh are not just those who wish to develop a large multi-million pound portfolio.
Also keen to get in on the act are people of all ages who have thousands of pounds worth of untapped equity in their own Irish homes and want to put it to good use.
They are using the equity in their homes to raise the deposit for a Scottish property, which they then rent out. For instance, it is possible to buy a £130,000 property in Edinburgh, which could command a rent of £495 per month. A two-bedroomed flat could cost from from £145,000 and could achieve a rent of £595.
Some Irish investors are choosing to look to the long-term by investing in and renting out properties until capital appreciation is sufficient to prompt a sale. The Edinburgh rental market is extremely buoyant and our contacts within the letting agency sector are excellent. Indeed, most properties we handle are let out within a couple of weeks.
Ambience Homes Ltd. was set up to provide a one-stop shop for people buying property in Edinburgh. We will not only source the property you want and introduce you to surveyors to complete the purchase. We can then take care of all the finishing touches from furnishing it to arranging a letting agent.
Edinburgh has long been considered one of the world’s most attractive and appealing cities to live in and visit. Its ancient castle and busy shopping and vibrant entertainment areas are within a short journey from some of the most beautiful and breathtaking countryside in the world.
In September 2005, a YouGov poll - with input from traveller’s bible Conde Naste and the Economist - found that Edinburgh was the fifth most-talked-about city on Earth, with only New York, Sydney, Paris and Barcelona more highly spoken about.
The Scotland Act (1998) saw the creation of a devolved government. In October 2004, the parliament moved from its temporary home on the Mound into its purpose-built £431 million home at Holyrood. The building, designed by the late Catalan architect Enric Miralles has since gone on to win a string of top design awards.
Scotland’s capital is considered the birthplace of the Enlightenment and is home to the world’s biggest annual arts festival. The YouGov study rated its cultural offering higher than Tokyo, Delhi, and Florence.
As a seat of learning, Edinburgh boasts four universities: University of Edinburgh, Napier University, Heriot-Watt University, and Queen Margaret University College. It also has Edinburgh College of Art and the Scottish Agricultural College. Around 12 per cent of Edinburgh’s 425,000 population are students - many of them from Ireland - and it is also a magnet for many others from as far away as South America, Australia and Asia.
Edinburgh is considered to be one of Europe’s top financial centres, boasting strong banking, life and pensions, insurance, broking and fund management sectors which together contribute six per cent of Scotland’s economy.
Other leading global businesses either headquartered or with a presence in Edinburgh include Standard Life, one of Europe’s biggest insurance companies; Scottish & Newcastle, Britain’s biggest brewer; FTSE oil company Cairn Energy; and overseas firms such as State Street, Microsoft and Aegon, as well as many, many others.
Scotland has a long-held reputation for enterprise and innovation and the city is a major UK hub for the creative industries, as well as being home to one of the world’s foremost biotechnology clusters. The Scottish Executive is driving its Fresh Talent Initiative, which aims to bring the most promising students to Scotland and retain them upon graduation to feed a pipeline of the brightest minds into its growing and lauded skills and research base.
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