£94m worth of land sales completed by property firm
Property agent Savills says it completed almost £94m worth of land sales across the North of England in the first half of 2021.
The 19 sites – totaling £93,848,715 are spread across Yorkshire, Northumberland and Greater Manchester and have planning permission for 2,713 residential units.
Significant deals in Yorkshire included a 10.36 acre site on phase 4 at City Fields, Wakefield which sold to Stonebridge Homes Limited in June with full planning permission for 149 residential units.
The team also sold a 5.76 acre site on phase two at City Fields, Wakefield earlier in the year to Rula Developments Limited. The site, which completed in April 2021 has planning permission for 90 new homes.
Elsewhere in the county, the team sold land at Kirkstall Lane in Leeds to Artisan Real Estate. The 5.58 acre site was sold with planning permission for 267 residential units.
The half year figure is double the value achieved compared to the first half of last year and is a 48% increase over the three year average for H1.
Matthew Jones, head of Savills development in Yorkshire, who leads the development team at Savills across the North of England, said the second quarter of the year saw a particular trend towards larger sites.
He said: “We have had a very strong first half of the year and our development land teams across the UK have capitalised on the strength of the housing market in the second half of 2020, which gave land buyers more confidence.
“The high sales rates of last year have depleted housebuilders’ stocks of new homes and land, meaning that land replenishment will be an ongoing feature of the 2021 market.
“Our research tells us land values have remained robust over the last quarter with UK greenfield and urban values increasing by 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, marking the strongest growth in greenfield land values since 2014.
“We have seen a particularly busy second quarter, with activity levels in the land market higher than previous quarters.
“The momentum has continued through July and we look forward to a busy quarter three.
“We are seeing lots of new sites being brought forward with increasingly motivated buyers in the market and no sign of a summer lull.”
