No signs of the credit crunch as buyers snap up country estates

THE top end of the country house and estate market north of the border is riding out the credit crunch with Scots overtaking foreign buyers in snapping up multi-million-pound properties.

Ten years ago, 90% of buyers of country estates were from overseas, but now half are from Scotland. John Coleman, partner at Knight Frank estate agents, said: "There's no doubt there's money available in Scotland. We have no problem getting interest in country houses, farms and estates worth £5m and upwards. Some properties might just take a little longer to sell."

And while average house prices are falling across the UK, agents who market expensive "trophy" estates say they are attracting buyers with millions to spend.

Knight Frank is currently marketing Sanda Island, off Mull of Kintyre, which is on the market for offers over £3.23m and comes complete with its own pub, beaches and pier over 350 acres, and the £6.95m Skeldon Estate in Ayrshire, which has salmon fishing rights. Savills has had its second best summer ever for sales in the country house market, with 16 properties coming under offer in one month, with an average value of just under £1m.

Jamie McNab, a director at Savills, said: "Country houses are proving to be the most robust sector of the market and have been unaffected by the credit crunch. We may not quite have reached the peaks of last summer, but 2007 was an incredible year."

He added that a lot of private deals are being done before properties come on the market by the "super wealthy" keen to buy estates with grouse shooting rights, for example.

Buyers of country houses are generally cash-rich and do not rely on mortgages, so the liquidity crisis in the banking sector has not had an impact.

But there is evidence that the Edinburgh city market is suffering because of a lack of confidence among buyers and sellers. Blair Stewart, head of Strutt & Parker's Edinburgh residential department, said: "Although properties are selling, anything seen as overpriced is not shifting. The feeding frenzy in the housing market is over."

He warned it will be another year before confidence starts to return. However, he said there are exceptions, with Belmont Estate in the Murrayfield area, which is still being built, recently being sold for well over £3m to an Edinburgh buyer. This makes it is the most expensive new house to be sold in the city.