A Happy New Year to all our clients and I hope everyone enjoyed their break over the festive period.
First Scottish Document Management enjoyed a successful 2023. During March 2023 FSDM introduced a new platform called Filetrack which is proving to be a great asset to the business. Storage business increased and several new scanning customers came on board to help FSDM play a very important part in the continued success of the First Scottish Group.
First Scottish Searching Services have again maintained their position as the largest searching company in Scotland. This could not have been achieved without the fantastic support from clients and the efforts of our staff. 2024 will see us continue to invest in technology and our staff.
House sales in Scotland for 2023 are currently standing at 85,698, this does not include December’s figures as they are not yet available. I estimate that residential sales for 2023 will be around 94,200 which will be a decrease of about 9,709 from 2022 (103,909).
Despite residential sales dropping due to increased mortgage rates and other economic factors, Scotland’s housing market remains robust compared to other parts of the UK.
We intend to hold our FSSS prices for 2024 providing the registers do not increase their charges. Despite challenging market conditions and rising overheads we have managed to hold our core prices since 2018.
2023 also saw FSSS continue their sponsorship of the Scottish Paralegal Association and CLT Scotland, both sponsorships will continue during 2024. We were also very active with seminars throughout Scotland, hosted mainly by Derek Hand.
Can I finish by wishing all our clients and staff a very prosperous 2024, both in your family and business lives.
