Ryden, Scotland's only major independent surveyor and the market leader, says a recovering economy has sparked a strong rebound in its transactional business in the year to April 2013.

The 31-strong partnership's investment fees rose by 25% and agency fees by 18% to produce a total 20% rise.

That is in sharp contrast to 2011-12 when transaction fees fell by 4% leaving a 5% rise in advisory fees to fill the gap.

Bill Duguid, managing partner, said: "It is definitely a sign that the economy is beginning to move.

"Those increases have outstripped the market and we want to expand the transactional side of our business."

Aberdeen again drove most of Ryden's growth, with a 15% rise in turnover in the granite city contributing a third of the firm's total income after a 17% rise the previous year, and enabling Ryden to post a turnover rise of 7% overall to £11.3m.

Growth across the firm's other offices averaged less than 3%, which is similar to levels seen in recent years.

Average profits per partner were steady at £130,888 (£130,447), and those of the highest-earning partner, assumed to be Fiona Morton who has just stepped down as the firm's leader after eight years, rose from £241,783 to £272,129.

Mr Duguid, who has headed the Aberdeen office since 1997 and succeeds Ms Morton as managing partner, said: "Aberdeen is a micro-economy and things are still different in other markets but they are getting better."

Ryden notes that it was again Scotland's busiest property firm doing double the deals of its closest rival, according to Estates Gazette which named it Property Advisor of the Year (Scotland) 2013.

Meanwhile, figures from commercial real estate information company CoStar showed it handled 154% more Glasgow office deals than its nearest competitor.

Mr Duguid commented. "We have a wider coverage, we have representation in all the major cities. We have seen a couple of the big global firms come to Aberdeen over the last three or four years, Knight Frank and CBRE, and because it is a very global industry there is no doubt they are picking up some instructions from outwith Aberdeen. But I am pretty confident we are doing more deals than they are in Aberdeen."

Ryden, which employs around 110 people, was founded in Edinburgh in 1959 and opened in Aberdeen 20 years later.

Glasgow-based independent James Barr, with a 140-year history, recently agreed a takeover by global player GVA after reporting static turnover of around £4m for several years.

Mr Duguid indicated the firm's sole English outpost in Leeds was one of his targets for growth over the next three years.

He said: "The north of England is a real focus for us.

"It is probably in the same sort of place (economically) as the central belt of Scotland, there is certainly more confidence around.

"There are as many people in Yorkshire as in the whole of Scotland. As the market improves we hope to be getting our fair shares."

Ryden advised on Glasgow's largest office deal in three years which was the letting of four floors in the Capella building.

It was also involved in retailer Schuh's acquisition of its new UK distribution centre at Bathgate, and on the sale of Aberdeen City Council's former headquarters St Nicholas House for redevelopment.