Alright for some

THERE was a boom in sales of £1million homes in Scotland just weeks before a new sales tax came into force. A total of 36 properties with a £1m price tag were sold in March – the highest number ever in a single month. It came before the Land and Building Transaction Tax replaced stamp duty on April 1. Two thirds of the £1m homes sold were in Edinburgh. There was also a spike in sales of properties over £400,000 in March, with 644 sales registered compared with 238 in the same month in 2014.

Estate agents Strutt & Parker, said: “The massive spike in both Edinburgh and Scotland in the month before LBTT saw the average sale price in Edinburgh rise to £280,000. It had not risen above £240,000 since 2008.”