Land & New Homes
News focusing on new homes, housing development, land acquisition and joint venture projects between agents and developers.
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Sajid Javid launches new house building agency
A new national homes building agency has been launched to get more new builds off the ground in the UK, it has been revealed. Originally announced in the Autumn 2017 budget, the new agency is now up and running and busy on several fronts, including lending £45 million through the Home Building Fund to create 4,500 homes. Yesterday Housing Secretary Sajid Javid (pictured, below) visited Alconbury in Cambridgeshire, where the government is helping fund 5,000 homes on the 1,420 acre site. “This government is determined to build the homes our country needs and help more people get on the housing ladder. Homes England will be at the heart of leading this effort,” he said. The agency will have new land buying powers and will focus on acquiring plots in areas where people want to live, support smaller and more innovative builders and bring more brownfield land on stream among the 16,000 unused sites recently identified by local authorities. The new agency, which will replace the former Homes & Communities Agency, is a key plank in the government’s plans to build on average 300,000 homes a year by the mid-2020s. Nick Walkley (pictured, right) will head up the new agency. He…
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For Sale: Private Palace in London (£100m)
Ultra-prime developer K10 Group has released its plans for Doughty House in Richmond, London, one of London’s most important heritage restoration and legacy projects, to create a £100 million private palace.
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Colliers International’s launches WING
Colliers International has launched the latest phase of new residential development, WING, in Camberwell, London...
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Chancellor’s promise to build 300,000 new homes a year is on shaky foundations
Figures just published by the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) reveal that the number of new homes built in England between July and September dropped by 4%, and by 1% year-on-year. The number of new homes started totalled 40,070 during the quarter, and 166,100 year-on-year, although the figures for completions were marginally better, up 2% to 39,250 on a quarterly basis and by 5% on an annual one. But the figures, which include both local authority and private new builds, reveal that the most marked downturn took place in the private market where quarterly starts were down by 6% compared to the previous quarter, and completions down by 2%. The figures also reveal how much the UK is becoming a nation of house dwellers, despite many governments’ attempts to build more ‘high density’ housing. New homes Just after the Millennium flats made up 25% of all new builds and, despite rising to 50% during the mid-noughties, has slumped back to 25% again. Earlier this month Housing minister Alok Sharma (pictured, left) revealed a £25 million fund to help “ambitious local authorities and third sector organisations in areas of high housing plan for new homes and infrastructure”. “Locally-led developments…
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KFH appointed to manage iconic PRS scheme
Kinleigh Folkard & Hayward (KFH) has been appointed as block manager, joint lettings agent and lettings manager of Britannia Point, Colliers Wood.
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New homes development is way behind demand
The UK housing crisis has entered a critical phase, with the fastest growing towns and cities building as few as one new home for every 23 new residents.
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Dorset developer asks prospective buyers to be vetted before they can buy
A new luxury home being sold by an estate agent in Dorset has a very unusual condition attached to its sale. But it’s not a free sports car, membership of the local gym or any of the other inducements sometimes offered by agents and developers to drum up sales. Instead, prospective buyers will be asked by the agent selling the home to attend an interview with the neighbours. The property is a three-bedroom home (pictured) overlooking the sea in Sandbanks, home to super wealthy musicians, footballers and business people. The neighbour asking for the interviews is former TV executive and now Dorset developer Ashley Faull (pictured, left) who also the home’s developer. He is building two detached properties on the sought-after peninsula and is selling one of them for £4 million to fund the build via local agent Tailor Made. Ashley, 51, has made it a condition of the sale that prospective buyers will have to be interviewed by him and his wife Heather before a sale can proceed. So keen are the couple on securing a buyer they like that, Ashley told local newspaper The Bournemouth Echo, they were prepared to accept a lower offer rather than sell it…
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Colliers International sells site for £16 million
Colliers International has sold 266 Balham High Road, a site with planning consent for 71 apartments, off a guide price of £16 million.
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Legal & General to accelerate house building plans following budget
Insurer Legal & General has revealed that it is to speed up its house building programme via its construction arm following the Autumn Budget announcement by Philip Hammond. Legal & General CEO Nigel Wilson says that the government’s plans to incentivise the construction of 300,000 new homes every year on average by the mid-2020s are the “first substantive supply-side policy for almost forty years since homes were sold during the 1980s”. “Legal & General will therefore accelerate our roll-out of housing and associated infrastructure including on larger sites where we can create whole new communities”. The company says it now plans to build 70,000 homes in the UK over the next five to ten years. Its announcement coincided with news that it is to begin construction at a second huge site in Berkshire within what used to be an Army barracks near the village of Arborfield, near to Bracknell. Crest Nicholson is also building 2,000 homes within the site (pictured, left). Legal & General has acquired 272 acres within the former barracks (pictured, below) where it plans to build 1,500 homes and the first residents are expected to move in within five years. The development will offer homes from a range of…
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New barn conversions stall as funding is hard to find
The number of agricultural to residential conversions in the UK has dropped 34 per cent in six months...
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