When Galway PE teacher David Waldron signed up for a postgraduate course in performance psychology at Edinburgh University, he decided to buy a new home there.
So he and his girlfriend, Mary O'Brien, have invested the profit from the sale of their Galway house in an apartment in Leith, Edinburgh's trendy new docklands area. They enlisted the help of Ambience Homes, a property-sourcing company run by Dubliner Lara MacMillan who moved to Edinburgh five years ago and recognised the investment potential of Edinburgh. Word of mouth led David and Mary to Lara's door. She found them a flat for €254,200 (£172,000) which has since been valued at €384,260 (£260,000), so it was a win-win situation for the Galway couple. It was brand new, originally bought by an investor who put it back on the market, says David Waldron.
"Houses are not going up as quickly in value here, so I might rent it out when the year is up. People are so friendly and public transport is so good I've sold my car. It's £1 a day for the two-mile journey to college, so I won't need it."
www.ambience-homes.co.uk
