Services

The process of selling land is an involved process and requires a detailed understanding of the background and process to have been undertaken to ensure the sale runs as smoothly as it can be.

The marketing and sale strategy will be determined principally by market conditions at the time but also the level of detail and conditionality that may be involved in each transaction. In most instances, the commercial developer or housebuilders preference is to acquire land when it is sold on the open market on a ‘conditional basis’ i.e. with the benefit of outline/detailed permission or reserved matters approval.

Conditional deals allow commercial developers or housebuilders to work through the planning/reserved matters stage, to reduce their risks. The process can be an arduous one. Acquiring land when all consents are in place means the housebuilder does not lay out all the funds for acquisition and therefore does not incur holding costs while they pursue detailed/reserved matters permission.

Sites are offered to the market on an informal tender basis. If outline planning permission has already been achieved, a detailed information pack will be prepared by us.

A full understanding of the technical basis is essential to enable us to address issues raised by interested parties and to negotiate especially where they have ‘over-estimated’ the risks or costs involved.

Once the purchase price has been agreed after the housebuilder has accounted for all of the costs associated with delivering the planning permission, detailed heads of terms will be prepared to capture the financial arrangements of the agreement and to set out any conditionality, obligations, reservations, timescales etc for exchange and completion together with any overage provisions that may be applicable.
Our role continues throughout the contract stage to ensure the agreed terms are reflected in the contract.

The quality of the information pack is imperative in ensuring that timescales for the submission of offers and the ultimate negotiation on technical matters are kept to an absolute minimum. Given the role that we have undertaken in many of the sites through the project management process, the sales process becomes more straightforward because we already have a full and detailed understanding of the site and its technical constraints.