Development land team acts on over £200m of deals
The Savills Midlands development team, comprising offices in Birmingham and Nottingham, acted on in excess of £200m of land sales across the East and West Midlands during 2019.
For the second year in a row, this total represents the sale of over 5,000 housing plots across 28 separate sites across the region with an average plot value of £41,000: a year-on-year increase of nearly 15%.
According to Andrew Galloway, development director at Savills in the Midlands, the transactions represent confidence in the region’s housing market.
He said: “The deals agreed in 2019 will bring much needed housing to the region this year, some of which is already coming to fruition in our core markets such as Solihull, Rugby, Newark and Wollaton.”
“We saw the development industry widen and diversify in 2019 with new entries to market and interest remained strong from major national and regional housebuilders. Strong house price growth continues to be forecast across the Midlands for the next five years, underpinned by wage inflation. This has certainly helped sentiment in the region and helped to maintain an incredibly robust market despite an uncertain 2019 politically.”
Ann Taylor, development director at Savills in the East Midlands, added: “As a result of the positive sentiment in the region, we expect to see traditional housebuilders continue to compete for land opportunities with investors as well as a growing Registered Provider market.”
Over the course of 2019 in the West Midlands, some of the major deals included: 1,500 units to Taylor Wimpey at Burleyfields in Stafford; 241 units to Redrow Homes as part of phase 3 on the Houlton urban extension, Rugby; 453 units to Persimmon Homes at Higham Lane, Nuneaton and; 242 units to Persimmon Homes who will build out the first phase of The Green in Shirley.
Development sites sold by the Savills Midlands team across the East Midlands during this period included: 310 units to Barratt Homes at Beeston Business Park; 110 plots to Avant Homes on land at Woodyard Lane, Wollaton; two parcels of land totalling 209 units for the second phase of the south Newark urban extension to Bellway Homes; also 310 units to Bellway Homes in Oadby, Leicestershire; 316 units to Avant Homes on the Mickleover urban extension and; 164 units to Taylor Wimpey at Elsea Park in Bourne.
