Oil rich Aberdeen sees surge in £1m house sales ABERDEEN's status as one of Scotland's wealthiest regions has been gilded by a new study which shows sales of properties worth £1m or more have nearly doubled in the last five years, compared to a sharp drop across the country as a whole. Research by estate agents Savills reveals that the most expensive homes in the oil-rich north east are more sought after than ever before. Whereas just 44 properties with seven-figure price tags traded hands between 2003 and 2008 in the Aberdeen area, the number shot up to 87 over the past five years, an increase of 98%. The high demand has been attributed to the success of the energy sector, with a growing number of new buyers hailing from the US and the Middle East. Nationwide, however, the top end of the property market is far from buoyant. The research, based on statistics from the Registers of Scotland, the national land and property register, highlights a drop of 22% over the same ten year period, from 839 sales to 635. The Savills Spotlight report on the Aberdeen area shows that the majority of sales of houses worth £1m or above over the past ten years have been made in the AB13 and AB15 postcodes, districts covering West End, Bieldside, Cults and Milltimber. Together, the estate agent said, these areas accounted for 63% of all transactions. The rude health of the top tier of properties in the region is mirrored by a rising average house house price, again at odds with Scotland as a whole. While the national average of £155,304 remains unchanged from last year, the average price in the combined Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire council areas has grown by five per cent to £203,534. Faisal Choudhry, associate director of Scottish residential research at Savills, said Aberdeen's soaring sales had been "exceptional," making up 19% of all transactions made in Scotland. He said: "It is clear the economy of the local area and the success of the energy sector is the main driver of this growth. The strength of the energy sector is apparent in the origins of overseas buyers, many of whom come from locations such as Scandinavia, the Middle-East, Australasia and the United States. wealth corridor Mr Choudhry also pointed out that two-thirds of the £1m properties across the Aberdeen area were in what he called the "wealth corridor" in the west end of the city. One of the most recent buys in Aberdeen was the £1.1m sale of a new-build in Bieldside, bought by a Malaysian-based purchaser. The A-listed Dunecht House near Westhill, meanwhile, recently sold for nearly double its asking price, fetching £1.9m, while Inverenan House, in Strathdon, went for almost £1.1m. In Edinburgh, the number of £1m house sale fell from 402 to 300, with a similar drop in Glasgow from 145 sales to 103 over the period. There were also sharp declines in the Borders - where sales fell to 10 from 32 - and East Lothian, which witnessed a decrease from 41 to 17. Argyll and Bute was the only other area to witness an increase in sales, from four to seven. One area, West Lothian, remained unchanged, with two sales registered in each five year period. Savills said the million pound house market in Scotland continued to be "suppressed by stamp duty thresholds and a lack of home-grown buyers," with an "increasing reliance on purchasers from outside Scotland." International buyers made up nine per cent of prime transactions in the Aberdeen area during 2012 and 2013, compared to just three per cent from elsewhere in Scotland. However, Mr Choudhry said there is reason to believe the top end of the market is not in as bad a condition as the national statistics suggest, explaining: "There are signs of stability in this price band with 122 transactions recorded in each of the two previous 12 month periods."