An old gem in New Town, Edinburgh

The Life: In the 18th century the rich residents of Edinburgh needed somewhere to live away from the squalor of the old city, so it drew up plans for an area which it rather unimaginatively called New Town. .

Eleven Carlton Terrace is on the market for more than £1.15 million. Abdrew Parnell / Savills

Q&A: Prime property holds its own

How strong is the prime property market in Scotland? It's getting stronger. The first six months of 2011 witnessed a "return to very high levels" of expensive homes being launched on to the market, according to the estate agency Savills.

What effect is that having? Suppressing values mainly. That combined with the large selection of properties to choose from, buyers' difficulties in raising finance and sellers' reluctance to accept lower prices means that homes in Scotland are taking longer to sell – 182 days on average last month – says Savills.

Where do the overseas buyers come from? Buyers of prime Edinburgh property in the first half of the year included clients from Australia, Bermuda, Canada, Dubai, Egypt, South Africa and Lebanon.

It is said that visitors to 18th-century Edinburgh could smell the city from as far as eight miles away.

The rich, who had been forced to live among paupers, desired a more salubrious place to live, so the city drew up plans for New Town: a suburb of stately Georgian town homes.

And the area - which was later ironically joined with Old Town, the former source of the problem, and declared a Unesco world heritage site - is still a very desirable place to live.

One property in the area that may be of interest to overseas buyers is 11 Carlton Terrace, which is on the market for more than £1.15 million (Dh6.53m) freehold.

It has five bedrooms, three grand reception rooms, a large dining kitchen, a study, two bathrooms, three toilets and a utility room. It even has a menagerie of stuffed animals, including a polar bear, although it is unclear whether they are included in the sale.

The downside is that the property has no garden, but the buyer can request permission from a committee to use the exclusive nearby Regent Gardens for a fee.

"It's absolutely vast inside and has a lovely outlook on Carlton Terrace," says Peter Strang Steel, an associate at the upmarket estate agency Savills.

"It's been on and off the market for quite a while. Probably the only drawback is that it doesn't have a garden, but then again you're getting a huge square footage with it," he adds.

This town house is testament to a rise in the number of £1m houses on the market in Scotland.

Another aspect of the trend: one quarter of all buyers of houses priced £1m and above came from outside Scotland last year, and 30 per cent were from overseas, the Scottish newspaper The Herald reported in March.

"The overseas market is becoming increasingly important to Scotland - 24 per cent of buyers originated from outside Scotland in 2010, compared with 10 per cent during 2009," Jamie Macnab, Savills's country-house director, toldThe Herald.

Top 5: Most expensive property locations in Scotland in March 2010

1 Edinburgh

2 East Renfrewshire

3 East Lothian

4 Aberdeenshire

5 East Dunbartonshire

Source: 2010 figures from International Data, a market research company.

The Quote: The New Town arose, growing from day to day until Edinburgh became one of the most handsome and picturesque cities in Europe. - James Nasmyth, a Scottish engineer and inventor.