Showtime! From left: Players from Edinburgh Ruby and their community team joined Galbraith at the Royal Highland Show; staff at the Galbraith bridge at the Royal Highland Show; and David Corrie presenting a prize at the Galbraith Stirling Bull Sales.
our relationships and hopefully building some new ones. As sponsors of Edinburgh Rugby, we were once again to be joined by players on our marquee and this led to appearances from Jack Stanley, David Cherry, Lewis Carmichael and Murray McCallum. The Edinburgh Rugby Community Team was also on hand to pull in the crowds with reaction tests and a sled-pull challenge. These games were extremely popular with clients, visitors and staff alike, with competition extending to United Auctions staff members and even Police Scotland joined in to try to top the leader board. As well as being a very successful business networking event, this year’s Royal Highland Show also provided a convivial atmosphere for colleagues from our recently merged offices in Northern England to meet, mingle and get to know our clients and staff members. Another successful event was The Game & Wildlife Conservation Trust Scottish Game Fair. This year the fair was important for us not only for client interaction but also because it gave us a large platform to celebrate the re-
belt of Scotland, we have been branching out from purely residential leases for such properties and letting them on semi-commercial leases to children’s care charities. This is a good news story all round. This type of lease presents an opportunity for a strong and secure income stream to the landowner while supporting a charity helping local children. Under a purely residential tenancy, the landlord must undertake all renovation work on a speculative basis with no guarantee of a good long-term tenant on completion, but under a care-home lease, the specification of the property can be agreed up front with the charity, in the knowledge that there will be a tenant in place on a strong rent for five to 10 years. Rental levels achieved are often higher than those under a purely residential tenancy, due to the difficulty for charities of finding suitable properties
launch of our travel experience company, Ossian. We were also lucky enough to welcome Keith Brockie to our stand to launch his new book about wildlife on Glenquaich Estate, Glen of the Lapwing, and to showcase his phenomenal paintings from the Perthshire estate. Galbraith has grown this year and so has our event offering. Our recent merger with Land Factor has allowed us to broaden our market and expand into events south of the border. So far this year we have attended a number of shows in England such as Northumberland County Show, the Penrith Show and the Glendale Show and we won’t be stopping there. Agricultural shows are not the only events that we have attended as a firm. We like to have a well-rounded schedule so we attend a range of seminars and conferences such as the SLE Spring Conference in Edinburgh and more active events like the Chariots of Fire Beach Race and the Belsay Horse Trials. As well as attending events Galbraith are not shy when it comes to hosting our own. Once again we successfully hosted our annual seminar in Ayr at the start of the year on the topic of rural
on a long-term basis and the perceived risk of damage to the property. Under a well-structured lease the charity is responsible for ensuring these concerns are addressed, and both parties know who is responsible for each aspect of repairs and maintenance. The charities look for rural properties large enough to accommodate three children and at least one carer overnight, so large farmhouses are ideal. The house benefits from being well heated and maintained by the charity, which can be a concern when letting such houses under residential leases due to the relatively high running costs. The landlord is not absolved of all maintenance responsibility, but the charities often undertake some general maintenance work through their inhouse teams. In contrast to a residential lease, there is no concern over potential void periods in winter, when security and burst pipes can be a concern.
house building and we are very much looking forward to our upcoming seminar with NFU Mutual on the subject of protecting your assets. We also celebrated the success of our Elgin office by throwing a 10th birthday party for clients and staff. The show season may be coming to an end but we certainly are not slowing down. We still have the Northern Farming Conference and Agriscot to look forward to as well as another round of Galbraith Stirling Bull sales in October, where we are proud to continue as sole sponsor, as well as a number of events in London before the end of the year. It has been an exciting year for Galbraith and we owe the success of these events to the enthusiasm and energy of our staff members who volunteer each day. We are already planning and looking forward to a packed 2020 show season. Keep an eye on the events page of our website, where you will find a full list of all our events.
robyn.mitchell@galbraithgroup.com 01292 268181
One of our clients which operates such leases is Caledonian Estate, near Glasgow. It has one tenancy to a care charity which has been in place for more than 10 years and is negotiating with another charity over substantial renovation of a former farmhouse, which will be let to house three children for 10 years. Caledonian Estate’s Rich Oliver said: “We are delighted that through our tenancy to the care charities, we are in a position to offer these young people somewhere they can call home. The cost of the renovations required to the house are substantial, and as a business, it is reassuring to know that we have a secure long-term tenancy agreed before committing such expenditure.”
charlotte.maclean@galbraithgroup.com 01738 451600
galbraithgroup.com | Rural Matters | Winter 2019/2020 | Page 23