Property

Our property law team is one of the largest in Scotland. It provides a partner led service with teams headed up by market-leading practitioners. The team handles multi-unit investment purchases/sales, complex development projects, high value property finance transactions, Scottish real estate support for headline grabbing multi-national deals and looks after the occupational requirements of a number of corporate and retail businesses.

Supported by lawyers specialising in planning, environment, construction, projects and banking, we provide a first class property service to clients in the private and public sectors.


"group of amenable and friendly lawyers - they deliver on promises and explain things to us in plain English." Chambers UK 2009

Technical expertise must be balanced by extensive market knowledge and experience, so we focus our property services in six core areas:


Development

We understand the issues that are important to developers, and work alongside other advisers. Looking at the bigger picture comes naturally to our property development lawyers, who are prepared to make commercial recommendations with a full analysis and understanding of the risks. We frequently draw on specialised input from planning, environment and construction colleagues to get projects off the ground and as the projects progress.

We provide expert support on the full range of development projects, from small to the largest and most complex, including market-leading work on regeneration, public, public/private, private and joint venture developments of all kinds.


Investment

The hallmark of our property investment team is focused, clear and pragmatic advice. We act for investors ranging from small UK-based investment companies to institutions that are household names. Investments include high street, retail and leisure parks to business parks and industrial estates.

We regularly advise on acquisitions, disposals, lettings and day-to-day management issues. And, as our clients grow, we can advise them on more complex investments, including forward funding, joint ventures and property development.


Property Finance

Our team has a proven track record in developing novel and innovative funding deals across the UK. We not only draw on our extensive experience across a wide range of secured lending and property finance deals, but on our related expertise in planning, environmental, construction and tax law.

We regularly work alongside our banking colleagues in large teams to deliver complex documentation – usually to a tight deadline, working late into the night. 


Retail and Leisure Occupiers
 
Our retail and leisure clients say they have 100% trust in our team, which is vitally important in today's intensely competitive retail/leisure environment.

With years of experience working in this sector, we can cut straight to your business objectives and concentrate on getting the deal done. Our team understands your needs, recognises the critical importance of market trends, and can advise you on today’s requirements as well as tomorrow's targets
 

Corporate Support

Several of our partners have developed excellent working relationships with a number of English and international firms and are frequently brought in to assist with the Scottish end of cross-border transactions with multi-national portfolios and the Scottish property aspects of mergers, acquisitions, restructurings and re-financings. These deals often require co-ordination of a team of specialists and are usually done to tight timescales. We ensure that on each transaction, however large or small, we deliver, as we appreciate that the Scottish end is often just a small part of a much bigger picture. We adhere to deadlines, provide clear and concise advice and follow up as required.

To improve our offering in this area, we have resourced our team with a number of dual-qualified solicitors (admitted in England and Wales as well as Scotland) to give us a better understanding of the requirements of those instructing us, and the pitfalls that await the unwary.

Our corporate support lawyers also frequently assist our highly regarded corporate finance unit.


Property Litigation
 
We offer our real estate clients a unique blend of expertise utilising the specialised skills of our highly rated commercial property, construction and dispute resolution teams.

Burness is ranked as a band 1 firm in the field of real estate litigation within Chambers UK, which refers to us as "A big player in the Scottish market" and goes on to say "this firm has staked its claim to pre-eminence in this practice area."

We prefer to focus on avoidance and dispute resolution in a way that doesn't destroy long-term relationships. By identifying potential flash-points, our team is able to createand test strategies to avoid disputes.


Restructuring and Insolvency

We have a specialist team of property lawyers expert in the management, disposal and enhancement of property assets (both Scotland and England) in distress corporate restructuring and insolvency arrangements, across the full range of industry sectors.
 

 


 

 

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