The buoyant commercial property market in Aberdeen has helped one of the top names in the industry in Scotland to bigger profits and turnover.
The Granite City has for a long time been the best place in the UK outside the south-east of England to make money from office and industrial space.
Property firm Ryden confirmed it yesterday after its accounts for the 12 months to April 30 revealed a rise in pre-tax profits to £4.06million, from £3.78million the year before.
Turnover, was up from £10.59million previously to £11.28million.
The Aberdeen office contributed about one third of that.
Ryden has more than 140 people, including about 30 partners, across six offices. It also has operations in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, Inverness and Leeds.
But the 35-strong team in Europe’s energy capital is making by far the biggest performance gains, achieving turnover growth of 17% and then 15% over the past two years. The strength of the market is driven by the oil and gas industry, where demand for extra space has led to a proliferation of new business parks and expansions in and around the city.
Bill Duguid, the group’s Aberdeen-based managing partner, said: “We are seeing growing demand for property in Aberdeen and there is no reason to expect that it won’t continue.”
Ryden’s other offices are also seeing good business growth, with transactional activity up by about 20% across the group during 2012-13.
Mr Duguid said this was a strong indication the economy was “on the move again” after years in the doldrums.
Ryden currently employs just three people in Inverness but the firm’s managing partner sees opportunities for substantial growth in the Highland capital.
The group is now six months into a three-year business plan targeting turnover growth of 15% to 20%, which Mr Duguid called “modest”.