New figures published by Registers of Scotland (RoS) have revealed that the new Borders railway has yet to have an impact on the housing market in the surrounding area.

According to the figures, in the last three years the volume of residential sales within five miles of the new stops has risen by 50.2% in Midlothian, and 26.3% in the Scottish Borders.

However, in comparison, the figures for the whole local authority areas of Midlothian and the Scottish Borders rose by 60.6% and 30.1% respectively and by 28.2% in Scotland as a whole.

Average house prices have also remained largely unaffected. Since the railway was announced in 2006, prices in the Midlothian catchment area have grown 6.1% to £166,639, while houses within five miles of the new Scottish Borders stations have seen average prices increase by 4.5% to £143,283.

Across the local authority areas as a whole, average house prices in Midlothian have risen by 13.4%, and by 9.5% in the Scottish Borders. Across Scotland, there has been a 16.1% rise in average house prices in the same period.

With services due to start shortly, the new railway line will re-establish a passenger railway service from Edinburgh to Tweedbank for the first time since 1969. The seven new stops include Newtongrange and Gorebridge in Midlothian, and Stow and Galashiels in the Scottish Borders.

RoS’ head of data, Rhona Mackay, commented:

“It is widely expected that the new line will stimulate interest in the property market in the areas close to the stations, and there have already been a number of new-build developments within the railway catchment areas in recent years, so it will be interesting to revisit these statistics again once the new link is up and running.”

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