The Aberdeen arm of a Scottish factoring company has defied a residential property downturn in the Granite City by doubling the number of properties it manages.
Newton Property Management said success in the north-east since it acquired Rosemount-based Watt & Co last year had boosted the whole group.
Chief executive Stephen O’Neill added the firm had seen turnover increase by 70% since the deal.
Newton had also sought further buy-out opportunities in the Aberdeen area but the relative strength of the local market and balance sheets of firms had, so far, thwarted the Glasgow-based group’s acquisition ambitions, he said.
“We are keen to acquire another business in Aberdeen,” Mr O’Neill said, adding: “Aberdeen still smells and feels like a successful city.
“Aberdeen also has a great commercial and financial base, and the companies that are here, the good ones, invariably have good balance sheets.
“We approached a company here to buy and the profits weren’t great for the past few years, but their balance sheet has been great for the last 10 years.
“We couldn’t afford to look at it because their balance sheet was so robust. They were being careful and canny over the years.”
Watt & Co founder Ross Watt joined the board of Newton after the takeover and has been expanding the business in the north, taking in St Andrews.
The company focuses on factoring, which involves the management of communal property in privately-owned flats and housing developments.
In addition to growing its management of traditional granite tenement buildings in the north-east, it has also struck deals with housebuilders including Scotia Homes, Dandara, and Bancon.
Mr Watt said: “We are the only factors in Aberdeen that also targets older stock. There are so many granite tenements around here that aren’t managed.
“We have dedicated manager who looks after older buildings.
“But the primary focus is larger sites – it is more straightforward for us for a developer to give us the go ahead to look after a site.”
And while Newton focuses on managing shared property on behalf of private owners, it has also been growing its lettings portfolio on the back of it.
Mr Watt said: “We are seeing a lot of new landlord inquiries. Rents are down so they want to cut costs when they can.
“We have added 10-12 properties in the last few months. One landlord has 12 properties all empty. We have heard of agents saying “here’s your keys back, we can’t move it in this market”, but we don’t have that problem.”
