Change is coming: Clients gather from right across the Real Estate sector for the Aberdeen Scottish Property Outlook
Savills Scottish Property Outlook was hosted in Aberdeen on 25th January 2024. As always, this annual event attracted a large audience of clients from within the city and across the wider North East region.
A series of presentations explored the theme: How can the real estate sector in North East of Scotland drive change in a viable and sustainable way? The event was chaired by Savills Aberdeen Head of Office Dan Smith, and the line-up which included external speakers for the first time: Geoff Aberdein and Martin Forbes, from the private sector-led and not-for-profit company ETZ Limited which is spearheading the North East of Scotland's energy transition ambition, addressed the need to reposition the region as a globally-recognised new and green energy cluster.
Claire Herriot then reviewed activity in the commercial property markets, identifying opportunities and challenges; Stuart Fyvie discussed how our building and project consultancy team are helping clients to improve the energy performance of their buildings; Claire Crawford revealed how the development market has been wrestling with a high construction and borrowing cost environment. Faisal Choudhry and Fiona Gormley provided an analysis of residential markets, together with trends and projections, and Jamie Wedderspoon gave an overview of Scotland’s increasingly dynamic rural markets.
Summing up Dan Smith said: “The transition to the way we produce, manage and consume energy is impacting every facet of our local economy. Significant change needs to happen within our sector to meet climate change targets: changes to the way we do business; changes to the industries which are the backbone of our local economy; and changes to the way we design, construct and use our land and buildings.
“The Centre for Cities City Monitor revealed Aberdeen to be one of the top locations for emerging knowledge-intensive sectors like FinTech and advanced manufacturing - ahead of cities like Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham and Belfast. Meanwhile a British Chamber of Commerce survey revealed over half the respondents based in the North East expect to see an increase in profitability next year, a significantly higher proportion than in the majority of UK locations. Further, it was encouraging to hear from ETZ on the work being done to support investment in the region and I am hopeful that political stability, both locally and nationally will drive further growth.”
“However the sector must remain open to change and innovation if the North East of Scotland is to remain an attractive place to live, work and do business.”
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