A SCOTS chartered surveyors is celebrating an array of positive news as it looks to increase its growth in a housing market still suffering from a lack of supply.
DM Hall’s Legal Search and Property Services Department has upped its turnover by 13% in 2021 and has projected further substantial increases this year.
Under the leadership of property professional Amanda Cameron, and operating from the Dunfermline office, the department has become a vital fee contributor to DM Hall.
As well as this, it has also recently been strengthened by the appointment of another key professional to take the department’s offering into the West of Scotland, where it says “attractive growth opportunities” lie.
In an industry worth £16m in Scotland, the 14-strong department has told of the sharp focus it holds on market share.
Amanda Cameron, who is a Partner in the Dunfermline office of DM Hall, said: “We are the only department of its kind in the country which is operated by a wholly Scottish company.
“All our competitors are owned either by English or US multi-business concerns.
“Our low yield, high volume service makes the growth we have experienced recently even more remarkable.
“Our expansion into the West will be driven by our new Business Development Consultant, who will work closely with our surveyors to make us an attractive first port of call, and it will build on the successes achieved by our expert consultant Ronnie Coleman in the East.”
The firm’s search and property services operation helps its clients at every stage of a property transaction to identify any legal, building control, planning or environmental issues which might have a bearing on securing legal title.
As well as Property Enquiry Certificates, it provides legal and conveyancing reports, environmental and mining reports and land registration services, while also dealing with building warrants, boundary disputes and unauthorised alterations.
Cameron added: “The last two years have obviously winnowed out a lot of the smaller firms, and larger firms have been assiduously sweeping up the business of these casualties.
“Our strategic determination now is where to position ourselves – with the smaller companies with whom we have traditionally partnered or to embrace volume business with the bigger players, which comes with the risk of arbitrary withdrawal of that business.”
The Property Services Division claims to have invested heavily in technology and its own internal processes to allow it to transition from a paper-based model to an electronic product which fits compatibly with clients’ own systems.
It plans to continue to make inroads into areas of Scotland in which it has no existing market share, particularly the Northwest and the Islands.
