A Scottish estate agency is staging an international property roadshow to attract Asian buyers to three cities, despite growing concern about the effects of overseas purchasers on house prices and availability.
Three executives from Rettie & Co next week visit Singapore and Hong Kong to hold two seminars, a business breakfast and a drinks party. They aim to emphasise the attractiveness of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen to Asian buyers.
The Rettie roadshow - which emulates the kind of events undertaken by high-end estate agents attempting to sell prime central London property - comes just as the development firm turning Battersea Power Station into apartments has announced that it will offer units in its second phase to Britons before marketing them overseas.
Late last year, 11 house builders in the UK signed a commitment to give priority to selling homes in new schemes in Britain before, or at the same time, as selling them overseas; many top-end schemes, however, still make a point of selling abroad first.
Recent data from Douglas & Gordon agency shows 50 per cent of purchases in central London in 2013 were by overseas buyers; other agents have been known to market new-builds in expensive provincial cities such as Cambridge and Bath at overseas roadshows.
However, there has been widespread concern from groups outside the industry about growing numbers of foreign investors effectively pricing-out British owner occupier and landlord buyers.
Rettie claims that with London's market now over-heating "many investors are hunting for better returns elsewhere". Its team visiting the Far East includes research and strategy director John Boyle, who has previously advised the governments of Ireland and Bahrain on property issues.
The firm will no doubt be emphasising new figures released about the rude health of the Scottish housing market. LSL/Acadata says the average price of a Scottish home is now £146,696, up 3.6 per cent in the past year. It claims only London and south east England saw higher average increases.
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