Rural property and farm land sales in Perthshire are harvesting the benefits of a rekindled confidence in the housing market and an improved economic position, according to a Perth-based property expert.

Archie Melville of Bell Ingram said both buyers and sellers should be encouraged by a rise in both rural and semi-rural property sales in the last quarter of 2013, a trend he believes will continue throughout 2014.

However, Archie stressed that unlike other fast-growing Scottish property hotspots such as Edinburgh and Aberdeen, Perth property as a whole is growing at a much slower rate.

He said: “The trends we saw during the last quarter of 2013 show a slow but steady increase for general property sales in the Perth area. The rural properties are where we are seeing most growth.

“This has a lot to do with banks and lenders, along with buyers to a certain extent, having more confidence within the market and investing in what is a growing market.

“Forestry and agricultural land, especially arable land, is in demand. There’s not a huge supply out there so investors, with the support of banks, are really seeing the long term value that I believe will continue to grow.

“Demand is outstripping supply so prices keep going up, hence why agricultural, forestry and amenity land is selling so well and will continue to do so.”

Despite the positive growth within the agricultural sector, plots and development sites are performing the poorest.

Archie warns that lack of lending over the past four years from banks has led to land which needs developing, becoming difficult to sell.

He said: “Plots and land for development is certainly the worst performing sector of the market.

“The past four or five years has proved tricky as the lack of funding has meant land has just sat, in some cases, for several years.

“Hopefully this sector will benefit from lenders starting to have more confidence again and we will see an improvement within the next 12 months.

“What it does mean is that there are significant opportunities out there for those people with the finance, so we are looking forward to starting to see more interest from buyers.”

Established in 1899, Bell Ingram is a multi disciplined firm of chartered surveyors, forestry managers, estate agents, architects, building surveyors and energy specialists. With more than 130 professional staff across 11 UK offices the firm provides local knowledge with national coverage.