It is a tribute to the significance of Scotland and the Scottish community on the Costa del Sol that the September 2014 edition of Essential magazine is dedicated to everything Scottish. Nestled among the features on international star James McAvoy and popular crime writer, Ian Rankin, is a personal portrait of the founder of Survey Spain, Campbell D. Ferguson.
Essential magazine gave the job of interviewing Campbell Ferguson to Michel Cruz, one of its most seasoned professional writers. Michel and his wife Jackie run Manifesto Design in Guadalmina, a life-work situation, which is not dissimilar to that of Campbell and his wife Louise, who together have developed Survey Spain into a well-established firm offering RICS-standard, chartered surveyor services across Spain.
The firm was founded in 2003 after Campbell’s on-off working relationship with Spain, which had covered many years, turned into a personal relationship and he moved to Spain permanently.
Campbell says that the reason Survey Spain has grown so successfully is because buyers now “see the value of having a professional building condition survey,” before committing to buying a property. In the UK it would be unthinkable to buy a property without a survey by an RICS qualified surveyor and yet for years many buyers arrived in Spain, quite content to buy without one. Now, they know it makes sense.
Of course, the interview also touched on the topic of the imminent Scottish vote for independence. Campbell isn’t a ‘die-hard separatist’ nor does he feel any enmity towards England, but as a Scot, he feels emotionally drawn to independence. Although he regards himself as British, he is, as he says ”first and foremost a Scot.”
His riposte to those who say Scotland is too small to go it alone is a robust one: “I simply refer to the likes of Norway, Denmark, Switzerland and Luxembourg, among the most successful countries in the world.” He also has a pragmatic view of the practical issues that an independent Scotland will face and sees them as “the technical details that come with statehood.”
However, whether or not Scotland grasps its bid for independence, this Scotsman is staying in Spain. You can read the full article here on p.63 and p.64.
