A GLASGOW entrepreneur who spotted a business opportunity in homeowners’ inability to sell houses in the aftermath of the financial crisis is on track for a year of significant growth.

Marc Taylor started Tay Letting in 2009, stepping in to help a Glasgow homeowner rent out a property which was struggling to attract a buyer.

By then he had realised that the financial crash had depressed the housing market, with many people finding it difficult to sell their homes as activity stagnated.

Since then his business, which now offers a property factoring service, has steadily grown. It currently manages 700 properties believed to have a value of £150 million, and has ambitions to lift that tally to 1,000 by 2019.

The firm, which employs about 17 staff at Craighall Business Park in Speirs Wharf, is expected to increase turnover by 25 per cent in its current financial year to around £1.3 million.

Mr Taylor said he has grown the business largely through “word of mouth”, with clients including legal firms, surveyors and financial organisations. And he is now looking to move into Edinburgh after establishing the firm in Glasgow.

But in the early days he would scan the property-for-sale websites and write to owners whose homes had been on the market for protracted periods, asking whether they would consider letting.

He said it proved to be a solution for people who had seen their property value fall following the downturn and could use the rental income to cover their mortgage costs.

Noting that this had created a group of “accidental landlords”, he said: “What naturally happened with this type of client was that, as the market improved, we’d get an exit with a sales value back at the level they wanted to achieve.”

Although Tay Letting was established on the back of the property downturn, it no longer relies on a slow moving market. Some clients let their homes because work takes them to other towns and cities but do not wish to sell up, Mr Taylor said.

Another area of growth is the rising buy-to-let market, with clients enlisting Tay to acquire properties on their behalf.

Mr Taylor noted that more people are moving into property investment because the interest rate remains so low.

He said: “Many of the clients who were with me at the very start are still with me now. The business grew because clients were happy and recommended the company to others. We let our operations do the talking.”

He added: “I think our operations are unrivalled and it is an area I’m really passionate about.”

Mr Taylor said conditions in the rented property market are buoyant, with rents increasing and “time to rent” falling.

But he said the introduction of the additional dwelling supplement, under the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax regime, could make it “less attractive” to be a landlord . It effectively adds three per cent to the purchase price of an additional residential property worth £40,000 or more.

Meanwhile, another growing element of the Tay business is buying property on behalf of wealthy individuals and renting them out to generate a return. So far the division has invested more than £15m for clients.

“We’ve always done that on the side,” he said. “We have a number of high-net-worth individuals who are just looking for us to go and buy the properties for them, rent them out and generate a return.

“We’ve seen some really good results over the last few years.”