Land sales helped Murray Capital Holdings, the investment business of the Murray family, return to profit.
The group last year completed the sale of the 110-acre Redheughs site near the Gogarburn interchange in Edinburgh to Places for People (PfP), one of the UK’s largest social enterprises.
The sale part of the 600-acre ‘Garden District’ was a major milestone in the group’s long-term land and property strategy, coming 10 years after the firm first applied for outline planning permission for the site.
Work is now underway by PfP to build 1,300 homes of various types and tenures, including more than 330 new affordable homes, plus a primary school, local amenities, and extensive greenspace.
The completion of the Redheughs site sale helped the Murray Capital group achieve a profit before tax of £18.1m in the financial year ending 30 June 2025 (2024: £1.7m loss), on revenues of £91m that were up 33% on the previous year (2024: £68m).
Those proceeds helped offset a £12.5m reduction in metal stockholding sales during the period, impacted by falling demand and volatile market pricing exacerbated by the introduction of tariffs and quotas in global steel markets.
More than £29m of land receipts are still due to be collected by the group in regular instalments through to January 2028, providing medium-term cash flow that will support future land promotion and developments, as well as other business investments.
Those other investment activities required “careful management in a challenging market” last year, with the firm booking a £1.2m impairment charge against its portfolio.
Net cash levels at the year-end were maintained at a similar level to the previous year, with the land sale proceeds allowing the group to reduce loan notes by more than £3m during the year. Shareholders’ funds increased from £33m to £47m, with the Group’s profits after tax, net of dividends, boosting retained earnings.
David D Murray, managing director of Murray Capital Holdings, said: “Our business approach is long-term and patient by nature and our 2025 results are, by definition, exceptional because it has taken several years – and sustained financial and management commitment – to generate that income from land sales.
“The decrease in metal stockholding activity reflects challenging trading conditions in terms of reduced levels of demand as well as weakening prices.
“The wine businesses again performed well, recording a rise in turnover in a relatively flat market. Overall, the group is in a very strong position with a significant land bank and a diversified portfolio of interests and investments.”
Future developments
Murray Capital’s landholdings extend to more than 800 acres and although it is focused predominantly on residential development, the Group is also in active discussions with providers of utility infrastructure, battery energy storage systems and datacentres.
It remains committed to promoting its wider west Edinburgh landholdings for future development in response to the capital’s well documented housing crisis and the City of Edinburgh’s ‘City Plan 2040’, which is currently being drafted.
The group’s landholdings at Kingdom Park in Kirkcaldy and Torrance Park in Motherwell are also subject to future planning developments.
Despite the increasing demand for all tenures of housing, the impact of planning requirements and build cost inflation has had a significant impact on the commercial viability of residential development.
Mr Murray continued: “The timescales and costs associated with bringing land into economic use – particularly for residential development – remains a source of frustration. Scotland needs to take a much more collaborative approach to ensure we can overcome the major challenges currently frustrating the planning process and unlock land for much needed housing stock.
“As an example, we own a parcel of land in west Edinburgh which finally secured a ‘minded to grant’ decision from the Scottish Government six years after it was called in for review.
“However, the current terms of the Section 75 order imposed on us threaten the whole commercial viability of the development. We are not alone in experiencing this barrier to progress, with many other landholdings and developers stuck in the pipeline due to prohibitive planning consent conditions.
“With nearly half of Scotland’s local authorities currently in a housing crisis – and the Scottish Government having declared a national housing emergency 18 months ago – we remain keen to work with all parties to find solutions to these issues and unlock residential development to fulfil community needs.”
Murray Capital continues to channel proceeds into The Murray Foundation, with a percentage of profits directed to the family’s foundation each year to fund support for many different local charities in a time of great need. Supporting the Foundation has become an increased focus for the business and the family.
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