Development team acts on £211m worth of land sales
The Savills northern development team, comprising the Savills offices in Leeds, Manchester and Newcastle, acted on more than £211m worth of land sales in the region during 2019.
This represents the sale of 4,924 housing plots across 39 separate sites across the north of England, with an average plot value of £42,850.
15 of those 39 sites were across Yorkshire and the Humber, accounting for 2,098 plots sold in the region.
According to Matthew Jones, head of development in the Savills Leeds office, the transactions represent confidence in the northern housing market.
He said: “The deals agreed in 2019 will bring much needed housing to the region this year, some of which are already coming to fruition, including: Tranby Park, Hessle; Station Road in Howden and the Prince of Wales Colliery in Pontefract.
“We saw the development industry widen and diversify in 2019 with new entries to market and interest remaining strong from major national and regional housebuilders.
“The north of England as a whole has not experienced major peaks and troughs in house price values and demands over recent years compared with other parts of the country such as London and the South East.
“As a result it is seen as a pretty resilient area from a national housebuilder perspective. It is the attributes of the northern housing market that contributes to its long term success, namely affordability and location.
“This year we expect to see traditional housebuilders continue to compete for land opportunities with investors as well as a growing Registered Provider market.”
Development sites sold by the Savills Leeds development team during this period included: 237 units to Avant Homes in City Fields, Wakefield; 349 plots to Barratt for the second phase of the Tranby Park landscape changing scheme in Hessle; and 252 units to Harron Homes at Gernhill Avenue in Fixby.
The team is working on a number of additional development sites which are in the pipeline this year, including: Woodhouse Garden Suburb, a 1,233 unit site in Brighouse; Highmoor Lane, Clifton which will be made up of almost 2,000 units; and Phase 1, Chapel Hill, Boroughbridge, made up of 266 units with draft allocation for 400 units in total.
