10 years on…where has the time gone?

Who would have thought a coffee with Dan Macdonald, then Chairman of the Scottish Commercial Development Forum, all those years ago would have landed me in a role which I have now held for the past 10+ years. The Development Forum went on to merge with the BPF to deliver the Scottish Property Federation in February 2007.

For me, it’s hard to believe that such time has passed since I walked into the first SPF office, a small basement office in Alva Street, which had two desks and one window with bars on it. I’d left a job working with the Confederation of Passenger Transport and was ready to start a new challenge with the Scottish Property Federation.

At that time, the SPF was a brand new entity, so much that on my first day I found an empty room with only a laptop and printer. The message was clear – get to work. 

In the early days we had to work hard to carve out our own identity and demonstrate our knowledge and experience of the real estate industry in Scotland. For me personally it was a huge learning curve coming from a background in transport into the property industry but I soon understood the role I played at CPT was not too dissimilar to that required of me at the SPF.

We launched at a particularly tough time for the industry as the recession began to bite which had a profound impact on Scotland’s real estate sector – but it was very clear that the industry needed a strong voice. We watched firms lose staff while others weren’t able to survive. It was hard for so many people in the industry. Thankfully our industry is growing again and SPF is very much the conduit between the industry and government – we remain a critical friend!

When I started in this role I delivered the first SPF annual conference in 2008 where the industry could come together both to network but also to chart a way forward to support the Scottish economy and create fantastic places to live, work and play. Over the years we had had some great keynote speakers, including First Ministers Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon MSP, Government Ministers, BPF Presidents and International speakers and our annual conference this year was hosted by The Rt. Hon Michael Portillo. I have been honoured to have worked with them all for our events.

Again, over the past 10 years we’ve had 10 outstanding chairmen who have represented our industry at many events, SPF and other stakeholder events putting the interests of the industry first. One of the great things about this job is that you meet lots of interesting and dedicated people and over 10 years it’s an honour to know and work alongside some of the great and good of Scotland’s real estate sector. 

Our membership has grown over the past ten years which brings with it great opportunities but also challenges too. A good trade association is not only about the relationships between itself and stakeholders but also about the relationships between members. 

Today, much of what we started over 10 years ago has taken on a life of its own. On any given day, our team are working hard for members and advocating the enormous benefits to Scotland of a vibrant real estate sector.

We are driven by what we so carefully created over the past ten years. When new members join we want them to feel they have instantly joined a strong trade association which fights hard for them and their interests.

Back in March we celebrated the 10 years with a Reception at the Scottish Parliament, kindly hosted by the Presiding Officer, Ken Macintosh and it was a great time to reflect on what we’ve achieved and how we’ve grown.

So what does the next 10 years hold, I don’t know, but what I do know is we’ve been successful in raising the industry’s voice, but there is still much more to do.…….