Scottish commercial property investment volumes plummeted in the first quarter of this year, their first significant drop for two years.
Investors spent £615m on Scottish property in the first three months of 2015, a 37% drop on the £975m registered in the same period last year.
Edinburgh experienced the most significant fall, with total sales value decreasing from £417m in Q4 2014 to £112m in Q1 2015.
Aberdeen saw an increase from £70m in Q4 2014, to £120m in Q1 2015, which was a strong performance in the wake of the significant reduction in the price of oil.
Nine property deals valued at more than £5m were completed in Aberdeen in the quarter, which was more than both Edinburgh and Glasgow, which saw three and six deals over £5m respectively.
The volume of commercial property transactions fell from 1,120 in Q4 2014 to 854 in Q1 2015 suggesting a drop of around a third in the volume of economic activity in the commercial property market.
This was the first significant quarter-on-quarter decline in Scotland for two years.
With the figures released by registers of Scotland now completing the public financial year 2014-15, the total value of commercial sales recorded in Scotland over the past 12 months was £3.1bn, almost exactly half the total recorded the year before the recession eight years ago (£6.2bn in 2006-07).
According to the report, early feedback from members suggests that the quarterly transactions for commercial property in Q1 2015 may have been slightly inflated by purchasers seeking to complete their transaction ahead of the 1 April 2015 introduction of the Land & Buildings Transaction Tax.
David Melhuish, director of the Scottish Property Federation, said: “The drop off in activity in Edinburgh is perhaps the most marked story coming from this quarter and this may well signify a lack of available product on the market having seen a significant number of transactions in the capital in 2013 and 2014. “
