Stacks Edinburgh & The Lothians Regional Info
Geography
The Edinburgh office covers a broad range of territory, from the Georgian streets of Edinburgh’s New Town through the much sought after suburbs and out to the County Towns and villages of the Lothians. The region encompasses a wealth of countryside and coastline, as well as a range of attractive towns and can provide an unrivalled quality of life with access to numerous leisure pursuits. The area is a natural location for golfers with some of Scotland’s finest links courses to be found in East Lothian. Edinburgh city is only an hour away from the furthest parts of the three counties served by the Edinburgh office and provides a variety of employment, retail and lifestyle opportunities as well as being a key transport hub.
Cities & towns
Edinburgh consistently ranks highly in “quality of life” surveys and provides the main centre of population and employment in the region including the Scottish Parliament and key public sector employment together with a number of large financial institutions. Livingston in West Lothian has proven to be an attractive location for a number of high tech industry sectors with Midlothian being home to the Roslin Institute for Biotechnology and the Edinburgh University Technopole, Science and Technology Park nearby. Each of the outlying regions boats attractive county towns with Haddington in the East, Linlithgow in the West and Dalkeith in Midlothian, not to mention the numerous other market towns and villages.
Communications
Air travel – Edinburgh Airport provides flights to over 100 destinations, both domestic and international via around 40 airlines and is regularly adding new services. Flights are available to all of the London airports as well as UK regional airports
Train services – Regular train services are available from Edinburgh Waverley to most major cities throughout the UK, with London between 4-5 hours away on the East Coast Main Line. Regular services are available to Glasgow, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness etc. Commuter lines also serve a number of East Lothian and West Lothian Towns
Road travel – The A1 is the main artery from the south through East Lothian and connecting to the City of Edinburgh bypass from where numerous local routes connect to Midlothian and the Borders beyond (A68, A7, A701). From the City Bypass routes also connect to West Lothian (A71 & M8), Glasgow (M8), Perthshire and Highlands (M9 & A9) and Fife to Aberdeenshire (M90 & A90).
Property Types
The Lothian towns and villages provide a range of traditional and modern homes at a wide range of prices from high street cottages to substantial homes as well as a range of rural properties from steading conversions, to small holdings and farms.
A diverse selection of properties is available within the City of Edinburgh. Clients can choose from fine Georgian Townhouses in the Georgian New Town, spacious apartments in Stockbridge, Marchmont and Bruntsfield, favoured by young professionals and the city’s student population, out to the larger family properties available just beyond the city centre in Barnton, Trinity, Morningside or the Grange. Edinburgh continues to undergo considerable change with high quality new developments adding to the traditional stock, ensuring an excellent choice of family homes, luxury apartments and investment properties. With limited properties coming to the market, prices in the most desirable areas remain high with the “offers over” system still capable of producing considerable premiums over the asking price.
With the best properties highly sought after, and often changing hands without full marketing, the services of a buying agent have never been more valuable.
Economy
The majority of employment in the area centres on Edinburgh City and on financial services, legal and other professions. The City and wider region continues to attract new employment in the technology, biotech, and medical sectors. Commuters can take advantage of the road and rail networks together with the expanding park and ride system throughout the region. However, as home working becomes a more and more common way to combine employment with a more balanced lifestyle, Stacks can help you find the ideal property to suit your needs, whatever they might be.
Schools
There are some very good, primary and secondary state schools available in the region. For further information see:
www.edinburgh.gov.uk
www.eastlothian.gov.uk
www.midlothian.gov.uk
www.westlothian.gov.uk
Information on the wide range of independent schools throughout the region can be found via the Scottish Council of Independent Schools at: www.scis.org.uk
Leisure
The region offers a wide range of Leisure opportunities from the vast range of sports and leisure clubs and facilities in Edinburgh including football, rugby, basketball, swimming, tennis etc. to a full range of country pursuits in the surrounding counties as well a sailing, surfing, cycling and climbing (at the Edinburgh Climbing Centre, Ratho) and mountain biking at Glentress in the nearby Scottish Borders.
Phone: 0845 519 3135 | Mobile: 07777 674 037
Email: williamkyle@stacks.co.uk
