A Scottish housebuilder has underlined its growth prospects in the north of Scotland amid major investment to boost the region’s energy transmission infrastructure after retrenching from the central belt.
Springfield Properties hailed as a "strategic milestone" the signing of a deal to build nearly 300 homes to support Scottish Hydro Electric Transmission's upgrade of the electricity network across the north of the country as it reported a rise in first-half profits.
And it expressed its hope of building more homes on the back of other investment in infrastructure that is expected to bring a large number of jobs to the north of Scotland, including the development of the Inverness and Cromarty Green Freeport.
Profits at Elgin-based Springfield rose by 6% rise to £3.7 million for the six months ended November 30, with revenue climbing to £108m from £105.6m. "Strong" growth in affordable housing, and land sales of £9.8m, offset an expected reduction in the firm’s private housing division, which saw completions dip by 40 to 190. The fall in private home completions came amid challenging market conditions, including uncertainty ahead of the Budget in November.
Revenue from affordable housing surged by 26% to £25.8m but fell in private housing by 9% to £65.4m. Overall, revenue at Springfield increased by 2% to £108m.
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Springfield renewed its focus on its native north of Scotland at the start of 2025 after investing heavily to establish a presence in the central belt in the preceding years. It bought Dawn Homes for £20.1m in 2018 and followed that in 2022 with a £46.3m deal to buy the housebuilding business of Mactaggart & Mickel.
However, Springfield signalled its retrenchment from the central belt with a major land sale, including 2,480 undeveloped plots across six sites, worth £64.2m to Barratt Redrow in February last year. The sale helped the company reduce bank debt and positioned it to “capitalise on the significant growth opportunities emerging in the north of Scotland”.
In December, the company signed an initial agreement with Scottish Hydro Electric, which trades as SSEN Transmission, to deliver 293 homes at six sites across the Highland, Moray, and Aberdeenshire areas to accommodate people working on major energy infrastructure upgrades.
And yesterday Springfield outlined its hopes of securing further work with other partners across the north of Scotland which continues to be blighted by a housing shortage, confirming talks have been taking place with other infrastructure providers.
Springfield will initially lease the homes it builds under the SSEN deal for four years to people working on energy upgrade projects.
Chief executive Innes Smith said the company’s land bank, which includes options over 4,652 plots in the north of Scotland, along with its workforce means it is “very well placed” to take advantage of the planned infrastructure investment.
“I’m from the Highlands, I live there and I want to see opportunities for the young people,” Mr Smith told The Herald yesterday.
“I don’t want to just see old people moving up there and young people moving away. We’re fast becoming a museum – it’s like a modern-day Highland Clearances – and I’d really like to see that reversed and see young people coming up for opportunities the same way as they went to Aberdeen in the ‘70s and ‘80s.
“So I think there's a great opportunity and with economic growth comes improvement in services, improvements in infrastructure and everyone benefits.”
Mr Smith said Springfield will continue building under the Dawn Homes and Mactaggart & Mickel brands in central Scotland for the next two years. But he said the company is focusing its investment in the north of Scotland because “there’s a better opportunity there than there is in the central belt at this point in time”.
He said: “You know, it's like the Warren Buffett [approach] – you put your capital where the opportunities are, and we see more opportunities in the north than central. I mean, NPF4 (national planning framework 4) has made it extremely difficult for land to become available for planning, and it's an incredibly competitive market in the central belt with lots of key operators and big PLCs all bidding for the same bits of land, which are rare and few and far between.
“So it's not the same in the north of Scotland and we have different opportunities in the north and that's where our expertise is. So I think it's sensible for us to put our capital in that direction.”
Shares in Springfield fell nearly 4% in morning trading before closing down 2.33% at 126p.
Asked about the movement in the share price, Mr Smith declared the company was “on track” and had “delivered results in line with expectations”.
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