Building Briefs - October 19th

• Community centre work complete in South Lanarkshire

An opening date for the centre is still to be finalised and will comply with Scottish Government guidance and South Lanarkshire Leisure and Culture’s Recovery Timetable.

The transformed centre now offers a new inviting entrance area with reception desk which leads into a community hall, meeting and training facilities, IT suite and a new library. 

The final piece in the development is the construction of a community garden project which will start on site from today. 

The garden project will convert the area to the side of building into various zones. There will be a labyrinth paving area with stone sculpture and ladybird bench, a grassed apple orchard complimenting perennial and shrub beds and brightly coloured planters with herbs, an area with a children’s colourful playground, games artwork and funky snake bench, a removeable seating area and a bench and totem pole on the quieter library side. 

• Shepherd launches online commercial property auctions

Shepherd Chartered Surveyors has launched an online commercial property auctions platform offering both ‘Live Broadcast’ virtual auction room sales and a separate online bidding facility at www.shepherd.co.uk/commercial-auctions.

Following a year in development by Shepherd managing partner Steve Barnett, the firm has appointed online property auction business development specialist Barry Dunlop to spearhead the new platform.

Shepherd Commercial Property Auctions offers clients two types of auction. The first is an online bidding platform whereby prospective buyers sign up to the platform and submit bids for properties within a set timeframe, having been processed through the various regulatory money laundering checks and registered as buyers.

The second type of auction involves the posting of various lots online for which the auctioneer invites pre-authorised buyers to post bids via a live broadcast.

These processes are enhanced further by Shepherd’s traditional RICS qualified commercial agency teams operating throughout Scotland from its network of 34 offices incorporating 11 dedicated commercial centres across the country, thereby offering both virtual and physical property viewings.

• Scotland quickly catches up with rest of UK in £1m-plus home sales

Sales of £1m-plus homes have surged across the UK since as affluent buyers look for more space and lifestyle change, with two-thirds more deals agreed in the past four months than in the same period last year

Scotland, where the top of the market is now on an upward trajectory, is playing catch up reflecting the late post lockdown re-opening of the market north of the border, according to latest research from Savills.

An average of 868 £1m-plus sales have been agreed each week since the beginning of June, 66% higher than the weekly average of 522 over the same period in 2019, new data from Savills and TwentyCi show.  

Despite the key spring market being all but lost to the lockdown – including an extended period in Scotland - when sales fell to just 69 in the week ending 19 April, a total of 23,000 sales were agreed in the first three quarters of 2020, 16% higher than in 2019. 

• £55k to be invested in new Lhanbryde playpark

It’ll soon be all swings and roundabouts in Lhanbryde thanks to a £55,000 investment earmarked for a new playpark.

Moray Council is investing the cash to replace the existing playpark sited at the playing fields, as many items of play equipment are worn, at the end of their use and beyond economical repair. The latest playground inspection report – carried out in June – rated the average quality of the items in situ at the park as ‘fair’.

New play equipment would suit children and young people aged 2 – 15, and the community will be involved in choosing what type equipment will be installed, and if there are any preferred themes such as farmyard or sports. Pupils from the primary school will be asked to choose their top three choices, to be incorporated in the final design.

The new playpark is expected to complete by early Spring 2021.

• Road closures as resurfacing works to take place in Inverness

Highland Council is to complete the resurfacing of Burnett Road in Inverness (between its junction with Harbour Road and its junction with Walker Road).

After consultation with Police Scotland and local businesses, the works have been programmed to take place overnight and at the weekend.

Burnett Road will be closed to traffic from 6pm on Tuesday 20 October until 6am on Wednesday 21 October, and from 6pm on Wednesday 21 October until 6am on Thursday 22 October 2020.

A dayshift will also be required in order to complete the works, and will take place on Saturday 24 October 2020 between 8am and 6pm. A diversion will be in place using Walker Road.