Savills Portugal

The resurgence of Dundee, Scotland's fourth largest city, on the north-east coast, has been thrown into sharp focus by the recent opening of the V&A museum, which is fuelling what is already a strengthening local housing market, supported by the ongoing £1 billion regeneration of the city’s waterfront.

However, the ‘coming soon’ buzz surrounding the V&A in Dundee began some time ago, and has been instrumental in recent price rises. Our Head of Residential Research in Scotland, Faisal Choudhry, tells me that the average transaction price in Dundee City increased by 7 per cent between the second quarter of 2017 and second quarter of 2018, more than double the figure for Scotland (3 per cent over the same period).

The average Dundee sale price has risen by 22 per cent over the past five years (according to the Savills Index). And the city has recently seen its first million-pound residential sale, a beautifully modernised Victorian mansion house in Broughty Ferry, once one of the richest suburbs in Europe, sold by Savills.

The opening of V&A Dundee has been likened to the Guggenheim Museum effect on Bilbao, previously another fairly low profile port city. Attracting visitors from all over the world, it not only kick-started the local economy, reshaping the city, but had an immense knock-on impact across the region.

However in Dundee’s case, the museum is just one aspect of the city's regeneration and therefore only part of the story. Dundee is already an established centre of excellence in education and life sciences and has renowned cultural facilities. Its highly regarded university is rated one of the best in the UK for student experience and graduate employment and has seen an average rise of 20 places over the past three years across the key university guides and consistently rated for innovation.

With any prominent infrastructure or regeneration project, the impact on housing is not normally felt until at least a year later but in the case of Dundee, it is already apparent. Going forward, the challenge for the city, and its wider glorious region of Angus, will be for housing supply to keep up with demand.