There’s a phenomenon in the property market in Scotland unique to Aberdeen, and probably not found anywhere else in the UK outside London. And that’s the unique chain which links companies – primarily oil companies – their employees, a relocation agent, a letting agent and a landlord and it’s how overseas employees come to find themselves in the right kind of home, in the right part of town with minimal effort or local knowledge.

Yet local knowledge is what makes it work so smoothly, according to Lynne Watson of Stonehouse Property Management and Leasing who has been in the business since 1993.

“Big companies don’t sit there trawling the internet for suitable accommodation for employees who are moving to Aberdeen from another part of the world,” she explained. “They appoint a relocation agent. That’s a service they pay for and it is the agent’s job to meet the client, find out all about their requirements, the kind of property they want, the location, if they need to be in a certain school catchment area, if they will be bringing pets with them etc. Then they’ll take them to the mobile phone shop, the bank – any other practical consideration.

“After all that the relocation agent will put together a report advising on what is available and where. It will even go into things like if there is a park handy if the client is a keen runner, or if there are stables within travelling distance if the client has a daughter going through the pony stage.”

Lynne’s job starts once the relocation agent has compiled the brief. “For example, I will be told that there is a budget of £2,500 a month, he needs a double garage, the landlord must be prepared to let him keep a dog and he wants to live between Cults and Beildside and I come up with the properties on the Stonehouse books which match the criteria.”

Most clients going through relocation look at between 10 and 30 properties over a few days. If they are flat-hunting they tend to chose there and then on the day, but a decision about a house, particularly if it is for three or four years, usually involves drawing up a short list of two of three properties and a second visit.

Even then the negotiating isn’t over. “I might have to go back to a landlord with a request to fence in the garden to make it safe for a potential client’s dog; or if a client is bringing all his furniture apart from a TV they might askthe landlord to provide that; or occasionally we will be asked to put together a deal that includes all the utility bills and council tax.

“If a landlord is going to get a good price for his property and a long-term corporate let, it’s worth him investing a little bit upfront to secure the deal and it’s our job to go back to the landlord and explain the value of this.”

Every time Lynne takes on a new property, she has a good idea which relocation agent might be interested in it for a client. For example, one company will be bringing across lots of new staff in May, all looking for two-bedroom flats at a rent of about £900 a month and within commutable distance of Dyce. Come June there will be a demand for four-bedroom houses at around £2,500 a month. One company has a preference for city centre properties, and American-based businesses tend to opt for something along the North Deeside Road for its proximity to the International School.

“Once you know this kind of thing, it makes matching clients, relocation agents andpropertieseasier,” Lynne said. “We only deal in a certain standard of property and we offer a correspondingly high standard of service. Our clients expect to be looked after.”

This once extended to a client’s daughter relocating her horse from Denmark, and on another occasion dealing with an out-of-hours emergency phone call because a light bulb had blown and the tenant didn’t know how to change it.

To minimise situations like this Stonehouse has a comprehensive, two page check list which they go through with every new tenant, going over such things as how to reset fuses, how to top up the central heating pressure, when the bins go out and where bikes can be stored. Some tenants haven’t used central heating before, just air conditioning, so they aren’t aware of how the systems operate.

“We did have a tenant once who phoned to say the TV wasn’t working. They had switched it on at the wall but didn’t relaise there was a power button on the TV itself, , so we include that in our handover as well now!.

From years of experience, Lynne knows it is easier to deal with good-quality properties that attract corporate lets. “The standard of tenant is good and the landlord knows he is sure to be paid if the renter is an internationally-known company.”