Talks over sale of Aberdeen housing site Countesswells drag on for nearly a year
Administrators have admitted the process is 'taking longer than originally hoped'.
A mystery buyer for the Stewart Milne site was revealed in June last year, but there's still been no sale.
Shepherd Chartered Surveyors was appointed to find new owners for the scheme in May 2022 after Countesswells Development Limited (CDL) foundered in the wake of the oil and gas downturn and the Covid-19 pandemic and plunged into administration.
The scheme includes plans for thousands of homes, as well as shops and schools.
CDL, set up to manage the £800 million development, was a subsidiary of the Stewart Milne Group (SMG).
Stewart Milne Group went bust in January last year, with hundreds of jobs axed.
A spokesman for the joint administrators today confirmed the site still has a sale pending with 'complex' talks continuing.
The site is still showing as being under offer on the Shepherd's website.
About 900 homes have been built in the community since construction began in 2015 by a mix of builders including Stewart Milne, Barratt, David Wilson Homes, Kirkwood and Chap Homes.
But the plan is for more than 3,000, meaning two-thirds of the development is still up in the air.
Housebuilder Barratt is currently in the middle of building at the development.
It has already finished 131 homes with another 318 to be built, including its current Kings Gallop scheme.
Felipe Ferreira, north division sales and marketing director, previously confirmed Barratt will continue to build homes on site and 'carry on as normal'.
In November 2023, councillors axed plans for a new secondary school and instead opted to go-ahead for plans for a 1,600 pupil replacement for Hazlehead Academy.
This came despite warnings that the facility had been something of a 'selling point' for the hundreds who have already bought new homes.
A spokesman for the joint administrators said: 'The joint administrators are continuing to work towards a sale notwithstanding that the process is complex and taking longer than was originally hoped.'
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