100,000 Homes sold in 40 years.

25/10/2010

The Tayside Solicitors Property Centre celebrated its 40th anniversary by presenting a £4000 cheque to the Lord Provost’s Charity Fund.

Provost John Letford of Dundee City Council accepted the donation and described it as “an incredible gesture.”

One of the biggest gifts ever made to the fund, the Provost assured solicitors and law firm property staff gathered at the Whitehall Crescent Centre to mark the milestone that the money would be put to good use within the community.

Lord Provost Letford assured TSPC chairman Hugh McKay: “The donation will be well spent and we are confident that the people we help deserve it.”

Mr McKay, who was joined by past chairmen Dennis Young – the original secretary - David Brand, Torquil Burns, Donald Hutcheson, Ken Thomson and Ross Paton, and long-time secretary Phil Scott, said the TSPC was delighted to support the Lord Provost’s Charity Fund, given its own deep roots within the local community.

The chairman seized the opportunity to reflect on 40 years of the Centre’s leading role in matching-up sellers and buyers in Dundee, Angus and north-east Fife. More than 100,000 properties with a value of more than six billion pounds have passed through the Centre.

The Centre has moved a few times down the years, having started off as the Dundee Property Register. But it has made its long-term home in Whitehall Crescent.

Mr McKay paid tribute to the vision of local lawyers who were among the pioneers of Scotland’s successful and enduring Solicitors Property Centre network.

In fast-changing times, the TSPC was still thriving and meeting the needs of its many contemporary clients, and still handling 90% of properties coming onto the market in huge swathes of the region.

“We and the general public owe them a debt of gratitude,” said Mr McKay, who was delighted to see five previous chairmen at the anniversary gathering.

He reflected on changing times in the local property market over the decades, recalling that the average property price in 1974 has been a little over £8000. By 1986 it had leapt to £28,500 and in 1998 it was nearly £54,000. This year the average is around the £140,00 mark, underlining the long-term return from an investment in property.

Mr McKay said: “The increase may have slowed but we are still moving in the right direction. The TSPC has been a dominant feature of the property scene for 40 years and the Solicitors Property Guide, which has been published with the Perthshire Solicitors Centre for 25 years, is now complemented by our website, which is averaging 150,000 hits a month.”

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