Over one third of land held by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) is in the Midlands, according to CBRE’s newly published Regional Land Report.
The Agency has over 130 sites earmarked for residential or mixed-use development throughout the country, totalling around 1,500 acres. Twenty seven of these sites (596 acres) are in the Midlands.
Adrian Willet (pictured), a senior director in CBRE’s national land and development team, says the Agency is facing pressure to release the land in order to meet house building targets.
“Typically 15 houses are built to every acre, which means that the HCA in the Midlands is sitting on around 8,940 housing plots,” he said.
However, bringing land to the market is not always straightforward. Some sites may be contaminated or have access issues which need to be addressed before the search for a buyer can begin. Others may not be in the right location and will be of no interest to developers.
More government departments are being urged to identify and release redundant sites for development. The Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been has been leading the way in offering assets for sale.
Yet, according to Mr Willet, the HCA land bank is only part of the solution, and he urges local authorities and private developers to shoulder some of the responsibility. Despite an increase in the number of local authorities delivering housing, the level of building remains relatively low, the report finds.
In Birmingham, the City Council is currently involved in a number of initiatives, including the mixed-use development of the 43 acre Port Loop site near Edgbaston Reservoir. But, in order to make real inroads into its targets, the council will have to use some greenbelt land, Mr Willet believes.
But he has noticed a ‘sea-change’ in the willingness of local authorities to part with land unconditionally.
“We have sold, acquired or are marketing a number of sites across the region where the local authority in question is prepared to forego long-term capital receipts and take short-term cash in order to bring in income,” he said. “It’s a very different estates strategy, even compared to just a couple of years ago.”
And local authorities releasing land on to the open market will find that the buyer profile has changed too. Whereas in 2014, the major developers were stockpiling land, they are likely to be more selective and less acquisitive this year as they concentrate on delivering schemes.
“This doesn’t mean that the land market will be dormant, as I expect the medium sized developers will move in along with the partnership players such as Kier, Lovell and Galliford Try, working with registered landlords,” Mr Willet said.
“The market is also seeing the re-emergence of developers buying unconditionally and taking the planning risk.”
