Exclusive:How lure of the home of golf at St Andrews has smashed property records, with flats selling for up to £7m

But in a sign of how the world-renowned Old Course at St Andrews has become a magnet for the world’s super wealthy, The Scotsman can reveal how dozens of sought-after flats and homes surrounding the esteemed venue have sold for seven-figure sums.

For those with pockets as deep as their passion for the sport, the cluster of streets surrounding the famous links course - the host of the 155th Open in 2027 - offers a chance to be part of a history that stretches back more than six centuries.

On The Scores, a famous street that runs from the edge of the Old Course up to the ruins of St Andrews Castle, there have been 15 properties that have changed hands for seven-figure sums in recent years.

Six further seven-figure house sales have gone through at the nearby Gibson Place and The Links, with £5 million-plus deals also recorded in other desirable streets such as Pilmour Links, Golf Place and Gillespie Terrace.

But the epicentre of the property boom in the Auld Grey Toon is undoubtedly Hamilton Hall, an imposing 19th-century building with panoramic views over the Old Course’s 18th green. Designed by the Glasgow architect, James Milne Monro, it once served as The Grand Hotel, welcoming guests such as Edward VIII, Rudyard Kipling and Bing Crosby.

The six storey B-listed building was later used as a hall of residence by the University of St Andrews, before the Wasserman family, US property developers, bought it and looked to breathe new life into the structure by turning it into luxury apartments.

At one point the Wassermans signed a letter of intent proposing a confidential venture agreement with Donald Trump, who later tried to buy Hamilton Hall outright, envisioning it as the ideal location for the Trump Organisation’s first international hotel venture. As previously revealed by The Scotsman, the Bank of Scotland put paid to those plans, having turned down Mr Trump’s request for a mortgage and loan totalling £38m, a deal they deemed “too risky”.

Instead, the property was acquired in 2009 by Herb Kohler for the sum of £11m, nearly half the price paid by the Wassermans three years earlier. Under Mr Kohler’s watch, the careworn red sandstone structure was fastidiously restored to its former glory, with rooms once used by undergraduates transformed into dozens of luxury apartments.

Over the course of the past 15 years, the Kohlers have quietly gone about their business, selling a series of residences at the site to super wealthy golf enthusiasts and investors, helping to turn Hamilton Grand, as it is now known, into one of the most exclusive property hot-spots in all of Scotland.

An analysis by The Scotsman of the Kohler family firm’s publicly available financial filings shows that between 2018 and 2022, it generated more than £34m in property sales. In 2021 alone, a year in which the property market experienced widespread uncertainty as a consequence of the Covid-19 pandemic, sales amounted to £17.7m.

Even by the lofty standards of the average house price in St Andrews - a figure just north of £528,000, according to Rightmove - the accommodation at Hamilton Grand has blown the rest of the market out of the water.

Property transactions maintained by Registers of Scotland and solicitors’ filings show that since December 2014, there have been at least 15 sales of apartments at the development worth £1.3m or more. Some of the best positioned residences on the upper floors of Hamilton Grand have gone for considerably more.

Indeed, it was previously thought the sale of an apartment at Hamilton Grand for £4m in 2022 had set a new Scottish property record for a flatted dwelling. But The Scotsman can reveal that records maintained by the Lands Tribunal for Scotland as part of a separate valuation dispute show that one penthouse property at the site sold for about £7m.

Another sought after two-bedroom residence sold for £3.6m three years ago, a sum that remains remarkable considering the average price of a flat in Scotland stands at around £135,000.

According to one property owner at Hamilton Grand, the appeal lies not just in its location - residents have access to a roof terrace offering unparalleled views over the Old Course - but the exclusive services afforded by Kohler Co. The vast majority of the buyers from overseas make use of a butler service, housekeepers and even private chefs and a golf concierge.

“We are talking about the kind of luxury service you would expect in a top-end US or Caribbean resort,” explained the owner, who did not wish to be identified. “Scotland didn’t offer that kind of elite proposition until the Kohlers came, and it’s obvious that there’s a demand.”

At least one other property at Hamilton Grand has sold for more than £3m, with a further five fetching prices in the £2m to £3m price range. However, given the final selling price of several transactions has remained confidential - indeed, some residences at the development have changed hands on the basis of ‘love favour and affection’, with no money changing hands - the full extent of the seven-figure sales at the St Andrews bolthole remains unclear.

What is clear, however, is that some luxury estate agents have sought to command even higher prices at the development; Verzun, a niche private brokerage firm that works exclusively with homes worth £4m and above, was marketing a four-bedroom penthouse residence at Hamilton Grand for more than £7.5m.

For those unable to stretch quite so far, Kohler Co also maintains a variety of two-bedroomed, self-catering ensuite luxury apartments for rent at a more realitic price - to those who can afford it, at least. A one-night stay at a two-bedroom residence in Hamilton Grand next week costs £1,070.