When Springfield Properties founder Sandy Adam began his working life as a farmer his focus was only on surviving.
He had to pay the bills and put food on the table.
The arrival of a supermarket next to the family’s farm shop in Elgin in the late 1980s forced them to close, but the move gave Sandy the chance to do what he had always wanted to do and move into business.
From his spare room he spearheaded the family’s project to develop 100 homes on the site.
Before that was done, he’d bought another two sites. The formations of what became a nationwide housebuilder completing about 1,000 homes a year had begun.
After more than 30 years in business, Sandy, 68, was made an OBE in the most recent New Year’s Honours list.
Today he remains chairman of Springfield Properties, which now boasts about 1,000 people after Sandy was the only employee for many years.
The Press and Journal sat down with the businessman to speak with him about his career, including;
- How Springfield Properties doubled down on building affordable homes.
- How the housebuilder changed its model to develop sites on a scale it had never done before.
- The reasons he thinks it is harder than ever before for entrepreneurs to start in business.
- Why he poured his personal fortune into improving sports facilities in his Elgin hometown.
- And why he thinks Moray could be on the cusp of the boom times returning.
How Springfield defied industry in backing affordable homes
When a requirement was introduced in the early 2000s for 25% of large developments to be considered affordable, Sandy says there was a reluctance from the industry.
However, Springfield made the decision to tap into the government funding on offer to build the homes.
They maybe weren’t glamourous dream homes in idyllic surroundings, but they provided ways for people to stay in their home communities instead of being priced out from where they grew up. They also created rental options in places they were limited.
While the firm had previously built affordable properties, it was the signal for the company to go all-in on providing lifelines to potential homeowners.
Sandy said: “We could tell the government wasn’t going to be able to reach that 25% just from private developments, we realised we would have to look for sites specifically for affordable housing.
“They’re maybe not in the most salubrious areas of towns, you’re in the sort of tertiary areas, but we went and secured thousands of plots.
“When we went to the housing associations and said ‘Are you interested in 50 houses in this village and 40 houses in that village?’ the reply was ‘Yes, and what else have you got?’
“So it was obvious the money was feeding through the system and we were all-in then and we were really actively looking.
“There were two or three years where I bought 1,000 plots a year just for affordable housing in the late 2010s.”
How affordable Springfield homes have transformed lives
It wasn’t long before Sandy was given a first-hand experience of how the affordable homes his firm was building was transforming lives.
It was the opening of a development in Elgin, councillors were there wearing chains and making speeches.
But one lady decided to seek out the property developer for a quiet word to tell him herself what the home meant to her.
Sandy said: “She grabbed me by the elbow and said: ‘Thank you Mr Adam for building this house.’ She said: ‘This house will transform my life.’
“So I asked her what was happening and she said she had a disabled son and she had been living in a home that only had a bathroom upstairs, and she had to carry him upstairs.
“He was seven years old at this point and she says to me ‘He’s not getting any lighter, and it’s breaking my back.’
“So this new house was a bungalow so obviously didn’t need stairs to get to the toilet, so it would have made a huge difference to her.
“Those sort of stories have an effect on you, you don’t forget them.”
Why it is tougher than ever to get started in business
Starting his own business was a teenage dream of Sandy’s, even before he started his own farm near Craigellachie with cows, sheep and crops.
The former farm shop site gave him the opportunity to ignite that passion for property, which completely consumed him night and day.
However, he believes rules and regulations have now got so tight they are now stifling creativity and “holding the country back”.
He said: “It’s so much harder nowadays, to start up. I would hate it.
“We seem to have an array of people preventing things from happening, telling us why we can’t do things.
“There’s endless consultations, reports, working groups and other costs loaded onto businesses.
“It’s so much tougher for young folk starting up now, than it was for me.
“I would get rid of some of the regulations, just in business in general, there’s so much of it now.
“When we get a planning consent nowadays there will maybe be 20 conditions attached to it before we can even start.
“Even getting a planning consent can be difficult. In one case it took us seven years.
“I don’t think it stifles ambition, I don’t think you can do that. But it stifles what people are able to create though and it holds the country back, definitely.”
Leaving a legacy for Elgin
The opening of Moray Sports Centre in the south of Elgin in 2019 was the culmination of years of work for Sandy and the rest of the charity that runs the facility.
A keen squash player in his younger days, he was always frustrated by the lack of quality facilities on his doorstep growing up.
Sandy used his own fortune to provide match-funding for the project to build the vast facility while bosses secured external grants for the work.
Today Moray Sports Centre hosts a wide range of groups that can use the massive sports hall, fitness studio or gym with indoor tennis courts recently added.
Sandy is clear that providing facilities like Moray Sports Centre are key to enhancing communities, and he was prepared to do his bit to deliver them.
He said: “It was needed, and it was obvious the council couldn’t afford to build it.
“We didn’t have a lot of sport facilities in Elgin growing up in the 60s, just the Cooper Park really.
“We had a vision to provide regionally important sports facilities, something that would bring people into Elgin, Moray, however you want to look at it.
“There’s nothing like these tennis courts in Inverness, so it’s great to have them. I feel fortunate I’m in a position to help with things like this.”
Are ‘boom times’ on horizon again for Moray?
Sandy has spent his entire life in Moray, whether initially in farming or predominantly in property development.
He’s seen the good times and the bad times, and believes the region could be on the cusp of a huge influx of investment with skilled jobs coming for the Inverness and Cromarty Freeport and the overhaul of power lines.
The property developer revealed Springfield has been receiving inquiries from firms eager to have homes built especially for their growing workforce.
He said: “In the 70s when oil was booming and Ardersier was building oil rigs, this area went through an age of huge prosperity.
“You had carloads of folk going to Arderiser earning huge wages as pipefitters and scaffolders and so on.
“That’s going to come again to Moray, and it’s going to come through the Freeport and the upgrading of power lines.
“The upgrading of the power lines is huge investment for the whole of Scotland, but particularly for Aberdeenshire, Morayshire and the Highlands because of all the offshore wind farms.
“The amount of staff they need to do that is huge. Springfield are talking to various operators that have a huge requirement for housing.
“There’s going to be a huge amount of money coming into Moray in the next five to 10 years, this area is really going to take off.
“I’m really buoyant about the future of Moray.”
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