Paragon Edinburgh celebrates first year with 2.2m sq ft of building surveys and £300m in insurance valuations

Paragon's Edinburgh team (L-R); Paul Lafferty, Elaine McKail, David Philip, Jamie March. Picture Copyright Chris Watt.

Independent building and project consultancy Paragon has celebrated its successful first year in Edinburgh, having completed more than 2.2m sq ft of building surveys and almost £300m in insurance valuations over the past twelve months.

The Edinburgh office opened on George Street in the Scottish capital in January 2018, led by Paragon director and head of office, David Philip, and associate building surveyor, Jamie March.

During the consultancy’s first twelve months in Scotland, the team has worked on an impressive portfolio of projects including project management of Bywater Properties’ McLellan Works scheme on Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow and refurbishment of vacant office accommodation at LGIM’s Union Plaza in Aberdeen. Paragon has also complete numerous building survey reports for both vendors and purchasers, including Brucefield Industry Park in Livingston and Broadway Park, Edinburgh.

Earlier this month Paragon Edinburgh appointed associate director Paul Lafferty, a chartered building surveyor specialising in commercial property, and office manager Elaine McKail, who has over 30 years’ secretarial and office management experience.

The team’s clients include Aberdeen Standard Investments, Hudson Advisors, Legal and General Investment Management, Oval Real Estate, Brighton Pier Group and Manse LLP.

Commenting on the past twelve months, David Philip said: “We’ve had an incredibly successful first year in Edinburgh and are seeing demand for our services growing every month. Our presence in the city has enabled us to offer a responsive service to our existing Scottish clients as well as attract new business.

“There’s an outstanding talent pool in the city which we have been able to tap into and build a robust team who know the property market inside out. Our ongoing growth strategy will continue in 2019, driven by our distinct approach of providing clients with highly effective integrated services that create commercial advantage.”

During 2018, Paragon also launched four new services and opened an office in Bristol in November. The consultancy now offers the UK property industry’s first in-house drone service, occupier services, a standalone dispute resolution support (DRS) service and rights of light and daylight planning.

Paragon was founded in 2009 and has now offices in Edinburgh, London, Esher, Manchester and Bristol. It is one of the largest independent consultancies in the UK with a turnover of £22m and employs nearly 200 people.