Heritor's mothballs development sites

Published on Friday 21 November 2008 08:55

THE development arm of property firm Heritor's has gone into administration following a battle against the downturn in the property market.

Heritor's Residential Property has mothballed its 20 development sites in the Capital and Glasgow after it was taken into the hands of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

The residential arm of the business, which lets out luxury serviced apartments, is understood to be continuing to trade.

Doubts were raised about the company's future when it put three Georgian town houses in Edinburgh – which it had bought for 2.25 million earlier this year – back on the market for only 1.2m. Bruce Cartwright, who is the joint administrator at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said: "The company was experiencing some financial difficulties before we were called in. We are currently examining the accounts to decide on the best way of moving forward."

Chris Buchan, the former Hong Kong lawyer who returned to the Capital four years ago to set up Heritor's, had said that market conditions had forced the firm to reconsider some of its developments.

The upmarket property group had also planned to refurbish the former Jeffrey, Scott and Mackenzie boarding houses at Edinburgh Academy to create the city's costliest rented flats, as well as converting the B-listed former St Bernard's Primary in Stockbridge into luxury apartments by the end of the year, but it is now unclear what will happen with these developments.