Is My Land Suitable for Development?
Whilst there is significant demand for developable land and property, the answer to the suitability question – and that of the associated added value – requires specific assessment of the opportunity.
A key hallmark of the UK market is that there is a seemingly endless demand for sites suitable for development. Be that strategic greenfield land for large-scale housing and new settlements, village fringe land for organic population growth, or the re-use or redevelopment of existing buildings and brownfield land for better use of our urban areas.
​
What makes a site more or less suitable, and consequently more valuable and in-demand, is a consequence of a variety of physical, legal and planning status attributes. Every site has a unique set of characteristics that requires assessment to quantify its development value robustly.
​
There are however a primary set of characteristics that are critical to assess to determine the broad suitability.
Factors for land suitability
-
Owner aspirations and constraints
-
Planning policy and planning opportunities
-
Proximity to developed land
-
Technical and practical constraints
-
Legal constraints, rights and tenancies
-
Highways and infrastructure
-
Development costs and site remediation
-
Housing and commercial market values
-
Financial viability
Many of these will primarily affect the value of the land and not its suitability, however some are critical in order for the land to be developed, and will either require careful mitigation to ensure deliverability, or may diminish or prohibit the development potential for the time being.
​
In order to assess the suitability of a particular site all of the above factors need to be considered. At Hambleden we can provide a quick overview of the suitability of your site with no obligation.
Achieving Best Values
The value of land or property to a purchaser for development is broadly governed by two factors. Firstly, the ‘full’ value of the development less the costs of completing the development. This valuation gives the site a theoretical price at which a purchaser would buy.
​
The second factor is risk, and this reduces the ‘full’ value. The biggest risk is that of achieving planning permission for the desired development. If a site has no planning status, and it looks unlikely planning could be achieved, then the very large risk of not being able to develop the land means that the price would be little or nothing over the existing use value.
The best way to increase value then is to sell the site with the benefit of a planning permission, and the further a site progresses through the planning system the less risk is attached, and the more valuable the site. Other risks can also be reduced to increase the value, such as ground investigations, utilities surveys, title indemnity insurances.
​
Land is often offered for development prior to these issues being identified and mitigated, resulting in poor values being achieved, significant delays of many years, or the land being denied planning permission altogether. At Hambleden we ensure that land is not prematurely offered to the market – unless timeframe aspirations are prioritised by the owner.