Median price at August 2008: £219,124

General increase since Sept 2007: -1%

Projected increase to Sept 2009: 0%-2%

Five-year increase: 51% (£145,188)

Ten-year increase: 185% (£76,943)

The complete Edinburgh North price guide

After a year of dramatic headlines in Edinburgh North, you can now almost hear the tumbleweed blowing through a market where one leading agent claims “nothing is doing”.

Edinburgh North was beating the drum last year, having broken the capital record three times, with two sales in Barnton and another in Murrayfield. “Knight Frank achieved a market first, selling a house in Barnton for £4.5m, which we have since sold again with a considerable uplift,” confirms Matthew Munro, partner at the estate agency.

That house belonged to the Rangers FC supremo Sir David Murray — or at least it did until he sold it for a £500,000 profit barely six months after splashing out the then record-breaking £4.5m. It is rumoured Murray did not spend a single night in the B-listed Arts and Crafts- influenced mansion that enjoys views over the Royal Burgess Golfing Society. The current owners broke the capital’s residential record with a £5m bid believed to have just beaten a mid-2007 private sale in Murrayfield.

So what do we say now? The answer is precious little: top agents in the city report no sales over £2.5m concluded in the capital since early summer.

Everyone agrees prices have fallen in the capital but nobody can agree by how much. HBOS claims a fall of 1%, the ESPC says it’s 6.5% and privately many city agents say that some homes have fallen in value by as much as 5%-10%.

Such price falls have to be set in context, however. With HBOS claiming a 51% uplift in prices since 2003 and whopping 185% growth since 1998, if you have been in your current home for three years or more, the chances are you will have built up a good buffer of equity to sustain you.

Well-heeled capital dwellers, though, find themselves in the same situation as most other Scottish sellers. They may have to accept less than they had hoped for if they are selling, but as long as they are moving up in the same market they should be more than compensated for their losses as they strike a hard bargain as a buyer. The big losers in Edinburgh North could be elderly downsizers forced into selling through personal circumstances — but again, any losses should be set against years of accumulated capital growth.

Prime Edinburgh North is still holding up very well, according to Murray Beith Murray’s Sandy Burnett. He says there are too many vulnerable two-bed new-build homes on the market, and it is this sector alone that is proving most sticky in the district.

“Edinburgh conservatism will always hold sway in terms of our market,” he says. “Period homes will always hold out over new-build, and the best traditional homes will always hold their value.”

Notable exceptions are Sundial’s hybrid new-build schemes. The firm sold a third of its Ravelston Terrace development pre-built and three penthouses within the first month of release. The prices quoted for the penthouses were “all around the £2m mark” with two of the apartments sold for significantly more. Burnett says: “Sundial have squared the new-build equation for Edinburgh, creating small, exclusive, top-quality developments converted from prime traditional properties.”

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