St Andrews property breaks record

Most expensive home sale in Scotland this year is at Home of Golf - an end-of-terrace home on the edge of the 18th fairway of the Old Course.

A house in St Andrews has become the most expensive house sale in Scotland this year.

The four-bedroom residence was on the market for £2.25million and, it is believed, went for more than the asking price. The buyer is also liable for around £250,000 in Land and Buildings Transaction Tax.

The property in question is The Wynd, an end-of-terrace home on the edge of the 18th fairway of the Old Course.

That there is only a narrow road between it and the course guarantees the owners an uninterrupted view of the golf course from the upstairs rooms all the year round, including for this year’s Open Championship and the annual Dunhill Links Championship.

For this year’s Open the house could be rented out for £50,000 for the week reckons the estate agent who conducted the sale.

The house also boasts views over the first hole of the Old Course, West Sands beach and the Firth of Tay. It has three reception rooms four bedrooms (three of them en suite), a kitchen, shower room and small garden.

The sale price could be considered a bargain when compared with the flat at comparison with Hamilton Grand development opposite the Old Course’s 18th green.

In 2013 flats in this 19th-century building which was once a hotel and a university hall of residence, went on the market at prices ranging from £7.58 million for the fifth-floor penthouse suite with its 360-degree views, down to £1.6 million.

In 2012, 9A Gibson Place another of the residential properties alongside the 18th fairway of the Old Course was marketed for £1.5million.

Research by the Bank of Scotland has found St Andrews is Scotland’s most expensive seaside town, with an average house price of £294,586. St Andrews property is marginally more expensive in terms of average price than North Berwick - by £510.

Jamie Macnab, a director in the Edinburgh office of Savills, says: “In the USA and China and Korea, golf is hugely tied to wealth and status. And there is only one St Andrews. There is a lot of interest in St Andrews from Americans, Canadians and Scandinavians. So when the Chinese and Koreans start buying I think prices will reach a new level.”