The booming energy sector is making Aberdeen a place which property investors find hard to ignore, commercial-property expert Angus MacCuish said last night.
Business leaders attending an event hosted by FG Burnett in the Marcliffe at Pitfodels heard that the buoyancy of the energy sector was having a direct impact on the property market.
FG Burnett managing director Mr MacCuish told guests there was much to be positive about but they all had a role to play in selling Aberdeen to potential investors.
He said: “One reassuring and welcome trend we have witnessed is a marked increase in the level of interest in Aberdeen and its environs from financiers who, in previous times, would not have bothered making what they perceive to be the long journey north.
“The message that our economy is very active has finally reached London. Our objective must be that once these people have crossed the Brig o’ Dee or touched down at Dyce, that we extol the virtues of this fine city and its long-term investment opportunities.
“We’ve all got a duty, both in the private and public sector, to do everything we can to ensure that our focus is on economic development, and to provide the conditions for future generations to thrive and prosper.”
Mr MacCuish said major projects such as the Aberdeen bypass were pivotal to the ongoing success of the north-east and would help to secure its position in terms of economic development. However, he added that a solution was needed to Aberdeen’s chronic shortage of top-level office space, adding: “There are a number of challenges . . . and the first must be to deal with the shortage of Grade A office space within Aberdeen.
“We have to guard against leakage of businesses which could be a consequence of having no ‘ready-made’ space available. By leakage, I mean not just losing business from clients who choose to locate elsewhere in Scotland or the UK. Given the international nature of the energy sector we risk leakage to (mainland) Europe, Africa, the Americas, the Far East and Australasia, where businesses may find it easier to secure not only accommodation fit for 21st-century purpose, but also a strong pool of skill sets.”