The sale of a village development site in Bossingham

The importance of design in planning applications

When attempting to get planning permission for residential development in sensitive locations it is important to prepare well before you start the application. Both the local people, quite rightly and understandably, and the Local Authorities are not in the habit of accepting any old new build houses in their villages. Our planning team looked at the land, how it related to the village and the views and access from the village centre street. We then engaged with Alex Richards at Hollaway architects and following all the necessary ecological, transport and land surveys, put together a proposal for four new houses which whilst being modern, efficient and contemporary also had carefully selected materials and shapes that related to the character of the place and the history of the location. We also arranged meetings in the village hall, which at times got a little heated, but ultimately we were able to show the local residents that this was going to be a high quality development with natural landscaping and once complete, would settle into the village street scene comfortably. Ultimately the planning officers and planning committee at CCC agreed and planning permission was granted.

Selling the site well

As with many of these projects, this is the one shot that a landowner gets to maximise the value of their land. Naturally getting the planning permission in the first place makes that possible, but if it is not then sold well the chance is blown. When planning permissions are granted like this they are public knowledge and developers often keep an eye on the Council websites and then contact the owners directly in an attempt to buy the land. The reason they contact the owners directly is because if they can persuade the owner to sell they avoid competition in the market and essentially buy it cheaply. As we say to our clients, you only get to sell this once, let’s make the best job of it. It is our job to properly market the land through our websites and email marketing to our long list of developer and house builder contacts and make sure we get them to compete with each other and ensure the best price available on the market at that time.

This is what we did here. Prepared the marketing material and created a data room with all of the relevant planning and legal information that a potential purchaser would need. We then sent it out and started the process of discussing the site with those interested. Following this period of intense marketing we then requested offers and agreed the sale. But as sometimes happens the buyer had a change of heart and pulled out a few weeks into the legal process. Undeterred, we went back out to the market and again found a good buyer, and this time we helped the solicitors take the sale through to final completion. The legal process can be complicated for development sites and this case was no different and required us to negotiate rights of way through the site and letters of reliance for the planning documentation, amongst other things. It always helps to have a good solicitor on board who knows about development land. And in this case we certainly had that with Rebecca Crane at Furley Page who was excellent throughout.