Newton Property on buying trail

Stephen O'Neill, the firm's founder, has warned of a ticking "time bomb" for ageing tenement buildings as absent buy-to-let owners make increasingly onerous repair bills more difficult to enforce.

O'Neill established Newton in 2001 with a small factoring division which has grown to manage 15,000 properties, mainly through taking on the management of new build properties.

When this slowed down two years ago, the firm sought out small acquisitions, including the business of Glasgow's Factoring Direct as well as the West of Scotland residential lettings book of Charles White.

As a result of these, the firm will see its turnover increase this year to 1.7m and O'Neill predicts this will grow to 2m the next. "Factoring is a sector filled with grey men with grey suits. It is run on Dickensian ideals. There is a commercial opportunity," said O'Neill. "What I didn't want is a book full of knackered tenements, so we are very selective."

O'Neill said that traditional factoring businesses - which were established in Glasgow around the turn of the century as traditional rent collectors - will see owners sell up as legislation ensuring standards for fire control systems as well as ensuring water pumps are free from Legionnaires' disease comes into play.

"Legislation is going to come round to the factoring sector - it is a sector out of control. "It is far more complex now. Gone are the days where a factoring company can use a single operative."

In the next five to ten years he expects commercial facilities management companies to move into the sector as factoring becomes more necessary. He expects Edinburgh, where as much as 50 per cent of traditional flatted properties are unfactored, will see mandatory factoring.

"There are going to be a few bad instances before the council says everyone will have to be factored. That is great news for us."