As a district that is home to the Celtic stars John Hartson and Paul Lambert, Houston is not only one of Renfrewshire’s prime locations but also a good barometer of changing prices in the region.
With its stylish, modern, detached executive homes, Crawford Road is typical of Houston’s aspirational property portfolio — No 74 was sold for £155,000 in 2002, No 73 for £167,558 last year and No 67 fetched £205,100 in July.
It’s safe to say that Crawford Road also reflects the trend for rapidly rising prices in the village. Estimates suggest that Houston has enjoyed capital growth of around 23% in the past year.
Private, secure and backing onto woodland, Crawford Road in particular is a favoured location of businessmen with young families who take advantage of the excellent local road infrastructure to commute to Glasgow every day.
The town is equally popular with affluent people returning to the area, keen to have their children attend the highly regarded local comprehensive Gryffe High school.
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Despite being out of the cherished Gryffe catchment area, Crawford Road nevertheless enjoys similarly high premiums on account of its excellent location.
STAR PARK
Nowhere else in Scotland has exploded back into fashion like the Park area of Glasgow. For years it was a forgotten Victorian masterpiece; today it is among the hottest places to live in the city — and the prices reflect that.
In 2001, large newly converted flats in Park Circus sold for £135,000, and a year later they were worth £175,000. By last year the same properties were selling for £215,000, and they have recently changed hands for about £300,000.
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New-build flats in the city have also appreciated quickly — which perhaps explains why some investors have chosen to buy and then leave them standing empty. In the Todd building in Ingram Street, for example, sales figures suggest that the larger flats were appreciating at about £5,000 a month for at least some of last year.
Around the corner in the former GPO building the same story is evident: flats in early 2002 were selling for £140,000, but eight months later they sold for an extra £40,000.
FOOTBALLER HOT SPOTS
Whether it takes the form of a preference for diamond-shaped midfield formations, jewel-encrusted earrings or Louis Vuitton washbags, fashions within the world of football are notoriously fickle. It is with delight, therefore, that Lanarkshire’s estate agents have welcomed Celtic’s latest signing, the Brazilian player Juninho.
Juninho is eyeing a £1.3m golf-course pile and would add some much-needed celebrity presence to the Lanarkshire hot spot following the departure of Henrik Larsson from Bothwell to Barcelona in the summer.
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It is, however, a reconditioned west end development of 20 flats that is the favoured location for footballers. At its peak last season, the upscale apartment block housed the Partick Thistle manager Derek Whyte and Old Firm stars such as Neil Lennon, Steven Thompson and Mikel Arteta.