Pitlochry, in the Grampian Mountains, central Scotland

The small town of Pitlochry, in the Grampian Mountains, is perhaps best known as a haven for the visitors to Scotland who throng its pretty main street. It describes itself as being in the geographical centre of the country but its significance in property market terms is defined by its unusual accessibility from other places.

For those who want a flavour of rural Scotland – avoiding buzzing urban centres such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen or Inverness – most other locations are simply hard to reach. Road travel in the spectacular Scottish countryside is notoriously tough, especially during frequent snowy winters; rail travel away from mainline tracks can be slow and pricey; the islands that litter the Scottish coast require slow ferry services for residents who want to get to the mainland. But Pitlochry offers a compromise.

The town has only about 3,000 permanent residents, with another 2,000 in surrounding villages, although that total quadruples at the height of summer and in October, when an annual autumn cultural festival attracts global attention.

Stone-built houses and cottages give it a distinctive small town appearance

Victorian terraces of stone-built houses and cottages, many decorated with wrought-iron balconies and fences, give a distinctive small town appearance. It is just a short drive to the glorious Highland Perthshire countryside, renowned for mountain walking – the 2,700ft Ben Vrackie is close by – and then on to the spectacular scenery along the River Tummel as it flows from a loch through the town and into the River Tay.

Perhaps Pitlochry’s biggest advantage in the 21st century is good transport. It is an hour’s drive from Edinburgh airport and it sits alongside the A9 road from Perth to Inverness. There is a modern train service for those going “down south” to England – the 09.23 from Pitlochry takes you into London’s Kings Cross terminus in time for afternoon tea or for a quick walk to nearby St Pancras International for the Eurostar train to mainland Europe.

“Pitlochry has become immensely popular for holiday cottages and it’s a thriving community for growing numbers who relocate there permanently,” says Clare Valentine of the Scottish branch of estate agency Strutt & Parker. “The schools are well thought of and the ‘tone’ of the place is right. People help each other and it’s a tight, supportive community. There’s a good vibe.” Valentine should know. She was not only bought up there but also returns frequently to see her parents, who still live in the town.

“There are a lot of 50-plus residents and retirees but it’s also well located for those who work in Perth. They’re not all in the town but live in the tiny clusters of villages and communities all around it” she says.

But such popularity has not made Pitlochry immune from the recession. House prices across all of Scotland have fallen just over 10 per cent in the year to October 2009 according to the Halifax Bank of Scotland index, which emphasises that, despite recent drops, average residential values in the country have still risen 90 per cent since mid-1999.

“Prices and demand are down in Pitlochry as elsewhere – 15-20 per cent off the late 2007 highs are typical but things are bottoming out,” says Valentine. That view is supported by Martin Gahbauer, chief economist of the Nationwide house price index, which is based on mortgage lending. “Prices were essentially flat during the second quarter, rising by a marginal 0.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter,” he says.

The Perthshire Solicitors’ Property Centre is selling a modern, three-bedroom family villa with two acres on the edge of Pitlochry for £450,000 while Strutt & Parker has Ballyoukan House, a seven-bedroom, 18th-century family house with almost 30 acres and outbuildings, many with superb views of the Tummel Valley, for £640,000.

The area is a popular one for self-builders, who buy plots of land and commission unique architect-designed homes tailored for their own needs. Estate agency Savills has three such plots in a quiet location just over one mile from Pitlochry railway station on sale for £175,000 each.

On the town’s outskirts there are small steadings – older farms – that are gradually being turned into country estates as traditional owners sell to incomers more interested in renovating the buildings than tilling the soil. All of these property prices are high by Scottish standards, which are about 50 per cent of those found in London and 20 per cent less than in much of the rest of the UK.

Anyone wanting to rent out a holiday home in Pitlochry, or let out part of their home as a bed-and-breakfast hospitality business, might well be successful. There is a year-round tourist industry involving keen walkers, while January to October is popular with anglers. Many locals work as part- or full-time ghillies – guides for visiting anglers – and many bed and breakfasts and hotels have their own “house beats” of prime fishing banks on local rivals and pools.

Shooting and stalking of game birds and deer, common pastimes for much of the year in this part of Scotland, are popular with individuals and companies that (at least in pre-recessionary times) entertained clients with organised “shoots”.

“There’s plenty of business and the trend for Britons to stay at home has meant a rise in trade this year,” says Sonia Manners, whose family have run bed and breakfast operations from their home on the edge of Pitlochry since the mid-1980s. “But there are also scores of B&Bs and hotels that have sprung up, so it’s become a highly competitive industry. Drive along the roads right the way into the town and the B&B signs are everywhere. The result is that standards have been driven higher by competing families, pricing out some lower-range visitors and taking the market higher.”

For homeowners not reliant on tourism income there is a successful energy industry; this is not from oil, which dominates Aberdeen’s economy 110 miles north east, but from hydro-electric power. Pitlochry’s hydro-station was completed in 1951, making it one of Scotland’s oldest examples and perhaps its prettiest, too. The dam built across the Tummel created Loch Faskally, now well known for its wild salmon.

This mix of modernity, tradition and access might well be key to the area’s popularity and relatively high house prices. For those deterred by the remoteness of much of Scotland, Pitlochry provides a solution – and one that allows locals to fish, hunt and climb just a few miles from a property hotspot.

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Estate agencies

Perthshire Solicitors Property Centre, tel: +44 (0)1738-635 301, www.pspc.co.uk
Strutt & Parker, tel: +44 (0)1312-262 500, www.struttandparker.co.uk
Savills, tel: +44 (0)1312-473 700, www.savills.co.uk