Following the No Vote in the Scottish referendum TIAA Henderson (TH Real Estate) has announced they will go ahead with tendering the £400m of construction contracts on its £850m St James project in Edinburgh.



It looks like a number of decisions on larger projects in Scotland had been postponed dependant on decisions made in the referendum, with TH Real Estate’s Director of Development Martin Perry commenting that it was “easier” to wait until the vote had been concluded before making concentre decisions.



The operation will now tender a number of construction contracts worth all together around £400m which will include demolition work and enabling work.



A main contractor contract will be up for grabs in June 2015 with plans for the centre to be open sometime in 2019.



The developer has also announced that their £230m scheme in Glasgow’s Buchanan Galleries shopping centre will also now be advanced and they’ll be looking to appoint a project imminently.



It appears much o the UK’s development companies had been implementing a wait and see approach before the Scottish referendum before committing to redeveloping their portfolios in Scotland.



He added: “In our opinion, there is now likely to be very active trading in the final quarter of the year in Scotland owing to the weight of the money for investment stock and the need to keep a balanced geographical spread/risk.



“However, it remains to be seen whether pricing in the marketplace will move quickly back in line with the other main regional markets of the UK, or whether there will be a short period of adjustment as more transactions are agreed.”

In the run up to the Scottish referendum we saw a distinct slow down in the amount of products we were selling to our clients in Scotland but it would appear levels have returned to the pre-referendum levels we're still waiting for.