Real Estate Wealth Development (REWD) Group has converted former disused and neglected offices on the corner of Lint Riggs and Falkirk High Street – known as Temperance House - into six apartments.

The building takes its name from its history as a ‘temperance café’ - part of a movement against alcohol - despite being originally designed by local architect Alexander Gauld as a hotel. It was then converted into offices about 50 years ago.

Directors of the company secured funding from specialist lender Together to cover the £550,000 costs of the Temperance House conversion – and now have their sights set on expanding their £12 million portfolio of 200 properties.

Laurie Duncan, director at Rewd Group, said: “We’re pleased to be able to bring our new Temperance House development to market. The b-listed building has been beautifully converted into six luxury flats, offering the new residents a chance to live in a real piece of local history.”

The developers have already established a strong and successful relationship with Together, having worked on around 50 projects and acquisitions. Other current developments include the refurbishment of 23 flats on Falkirk High Street, and the conversion of a former Indian restaurant in Grangemouth into housing.

Mr Duncan said: “It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to bring buildings with character back to life. Sadly, many commercial properties across Scotland and the wider UK have found themselves redundant in recent years, whilst in contrast we have also had to cope with a severe housing shortage.

“We looked at this situation and decided to focus a lot of our development projects into restoring buildings like this, and provide housing for the local area.”

Rewd Group was founded in 2019 by entrepreneurial business partners Mr Duncan and Alex Robertson, who are both from Falkirk. It has gone from success to success, despite the major challenges of successive lockdowns during Covid.

Mr Duncan said that despite many would-be investors still reluctant to get into the buy-to-let market in the current economic climate, there is a huge potential for those who take the jump.

He said: “The buy-to-let (BTL) market in Scotland is still booming – we’ve found more opportunities than I’ve ever experienced before. We have more investment, more sales and larger projects coming at us from all angles. The Scottish BTL market is one of the most solid places to invest, in my view.

“With Temperance House, our initial plan was to develop and sell on all six flats. However, considering the value we see in the buy-to-let market we decided to keep five of them for our own portfolio and sell just one.

“Together has been a massive part of our journey to date and we continue to do business on a daily basis, utilising commercial finance the way it should be used.”

Laurie and his business partner share a common passion in training a new generation of aspiring property investors, and he says that the number one thing for those looking to get started need to do is ‘get properly educated on strategy’.

He said: “It’s so easy to make a big mistake without first acquiring the necessary knowledge base that will allow you to apply the skills professionally. Learn before you get started, and you’ll find success in no time.”

Steven Clark, corporate relationship manager at Together, said: “Seeing the projects that Alex and Laurie are taking on is incredibly exciting. They have looked at what seems on the surface to be a challenging situation and instead found opportunities and success.

“Having already worked with them for several years, and watched their rapid growth, we have every confidence in their abilities. Temperance House is a perfect example of them putting their words into action; keeping almost all of their properties to rent rather than selling.

“The new flats will bring much needed housing to Falkirk, and we look forward to seeing the next project Laurie and Alex decide to take on as they continue to build their portfolio.”