A relocation consultancy marketing Scottish property to clients in the south east of England and overseas has been circulating a presentation that describes Peterhead, Fraserburgh and the wider Buchan coast as a “climate-secure acquisition corridor”.
The deck, seen by the Chronicle, runs to forty slides. It is not aimed at holidaymakers. It is aimed at buyers acquiring second and third properties as insurance.
What it says
The slides emphasise four things: summer temperatures that stay below 20°C, an absence of wildfire risk, a coastline with deep water access, and property costing a fraction of equivalent square footage in the south.
One slide reads, in full: “Peterhead: sunnier than you’d think, colder than expected. A perfect place to hide.”
Another compares the town to established coastal markets. “Cannes has yachts. Peterhead has shipping containers.” Beneath it, in bold: “Tactical advantage: Scotland.”
“They have written forty slides about my town and not one of them mentions anybody who lives in it. We are the weather and the price per square foot.”
A Peterhead councillor who has seen the document
What it leaves out
The deck does not mention that Peterhead is a working port landing more fish than almost anywhere in Europe, that the shipping containers it presents as charm are the town’s actual economy, or that the housing being marketed as cheap is cheap in part because local wages are below the Scottish average.
It does not mention the wind. It does not mention the winter dark. It contains no photograph taken between November and March.
The Buchan coast, as it is
- Peterhead: among the largest whitefish ports in Europe
- Average August high: 17°C, lower with the haar
- Median house price: well below the Scottish average
- Median local wage: also well below the Scottish average
- Photographs in the deck taken in winter: none
The effect locally
Estate agents in the area report a rise in cash purchases from outside Scotland, frequently without a viewing. Several properties have been bought and left empty.
The councillor quoted above made a point worth recording in full. “For thirty years we begged for investment and nobody came. Now they are coming, and they are not investing, they are storing. There is a difference and we can feel it.”
