Leathan Green in Portlethen is a new community of 55 homes, representing a £15 million investment by the housebuilder. Despite work only beginning on site, eight sales have already been taken.

The launch of this development comes as Stewart Milne Group reports strong sales performance in Aberdeenshire since emerging from lockdown.

Group chief executive, Stuart MacGregor, said: “We’ve seen a surge in sales activity in the last four months and have a very strong forward sales position going into 2021. Although the Aberdeen market has been more challenging in recent years, our sales are significantly ahead of the same period last year.

“There continues to be a strong demand for quality homes in desirable locations and we are seeing a particularly high demand  in locations such as Alford and Stonehaven, where a strong sense of community and the ability to enjoy more space and access to countryside have become a higher priority than commuting distance for buyers.”

This, Mr MacGregor said, underlines the trend of people choosing to live further out of town as a result of the enforced working from home leading to a shift towards more remote working in the future and the desire for more flexible space indoors and outdoors.

Mr MacGregor welcomed the return in demand in the Aberdeenshire market evidenced by recent sales across the region.

He added: “The market is not without its challenges but we’ve been responding to these by spending the last nine months refining and developing our design standards and products to ensure that our award-winning developments are even more appealing to customers.

“Leathan Green is our first major development of family homes close to the city since we completed our Westhill development and it’s great to see high demand at such an early stage. Portlethen has always been attractive to home buyers with its combination of established education, retail and leisure facilities and great access to both city and countryside. We know Portlethen better than any other housebuilder having previously developed over 600 homes in the town.”

Mr MacGregor said the housebuilder was increasingly active in and around Dundee, where it is investing millions of pounds after being surprised at the success of a city development.

Ballumbie Rise is its fastest-selling site in several years and has led the firm to reassess where it plans its next projects. Towns between Manchester and Liverpool are also firmly on the company’s target list for the future.

Last month, Stewart Milne Group launched a redundancy consultation process with its workforce after announcing plans to merge its central and north homes divisions in Scotland, with up to 80 employees are expected to lose their jobs.