LOCALS in Dumfries have accused property developers of “playing Monopoly” with their town after a company which bought two disused town centre buildings at auction last month threatened to put them back up for sale within weeks.
The abandoned high street buildings had been flagged as part of community action plans – backed by Dumfries and Galloway Council and the Scottish Government – to transform a run-down section of the town centre, under the banner of the Midsteeple Quarter project, by buying them under the Community Right to Buy scheme.
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Despite ongoing negotiations between the Midsteeple Quarter community group and the previous owner – investment company Columbia Threadneedle – the two adjacent buildings on Dumfries High Street were put up for public auction without warning and sold for £142k in early February.
Independent surveyors had given locals a valuation of £60k, based on the poor condition of the abandoned buildings, and they had raised money with the help of a crowdfunder, hoping to make a competitive bid.
Two weeks ago, the new owner, represented by agent EGK Consultancy, claimed one of the buildings had already been resold, and offered to sell the other to the Midsteeple Quarter. Days later, with negotiations still ongoing, a sale board appeared on the street and the building was re-listed for auction on March 18. The guide price was this time £145k for just one of the two properties.
However, following an investigation by the Sunday National last week, the property was yesterday withdrawn from sale on both Right Move and the Future Property Auctions site where it was listed.
Matt Baker, project manager of the Midsteeple Quarter project – which also wrote to the agent to make a final offer on the building last week – welcomed the news that the property had come off the market.
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But he said locals remained deeply frustrated by the way property developers were able to buy and sell up properties that then lay abandoned, despite the community drive to invest in their town.
“Our community just doesn’t seem to be able to get any traction in this game – our wishes, plans and efforts are coming a very poor second to pure money,” he added. “We watch powerlessly while people play
Monopoly with our town.”
He claimed the problem was being played out on high streets across Scotland, as large financial institutions, which own many buildings on Scottish high streets, pulled out of the no-longer prosperous town centres, “dumping” the properties back on the open market.
He said: “Now a new market has formed – a kind of ‘Poundland for property’ – and a second-hand car dealing type mentality, where people are trying to buy cheap and then flog things to make a fast buck.
“Our town is something to be bought and sold in some sort of pass-the-parcel game that looks like a bargain basement version of the way sub-prime mortgages were being traded prior to the 2008 crash.”
The Midsteeple Quarter, which has been in discussion with the Scottish Land Fund, still holds out hope that it could buy the buildings as part of its plans to be the first town to own its own high street. More than 400 people have signed up to support its “Doon Toon army” of volunteers backing the scheme and taking part in events from street cleans to benefit gigs.
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Its master plan includes shop spaces for local businesses and social enterprises and town centre housing for local residents.
“Our hope is that the owner will now enter into negotiation with us,” Baker added. “We are offering to go through the Scottish Land Fund process with them and this would result in an agreed market valuation for the property and a feasibility plan for redevelopment.”
Linsay Chalmers, development manager of Community Land Scotland, which is working with community groups across the country to help them buy rural and urban land or buildings as local assets, claimed the group had already much to be proud of.
“The work of Midsteeple Quarter has unleashed a huge amount of energy in Dumfries and a belief that their high street can thrive again,” she added.
“They have already made a big difference to levels of community confidence in Dumfries and are inspiring other communities across Scotland. We have seen a significant increase in the number of communities in towns and cities aiming to take ownership of land and buildings to reverse years of decline.
“Community Land Scotland welcomes the Scottish Land Commission’s recent recommendation to the Scottish Government that community ownership becomes a mainstream route for economic development. For that to happen it’s vital that current and future Community Right to Buy legislation and other support mechanisms enable communities to fully meet their development ambitions.”
The Sunday National attempted to contact both the property owner and the agent acting on the company’s behalf, but did not receive a reply to emails or phone messages.
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