Bidwells' Residential Development team is currently handling short and medium-term agency land worth in excess of £775m. In plot terms, that’s 19-20,000 plots - more than the largest plc housebuilders build in a year across the whole country.
Head of Residential Development, Mark Buddle, puts the astonishing figures down to the surging house buyer demand post-lockdown as well as landowners wanting to sell land ahead of any potential changes to Capital Gains Tax currently being floated by the Treasury in the Spring Budget.
Mark said these two factors helped fuel the land market that was already bouncing back strongly after transactions were held back by the outbreak of the Pandemic and the first lockdown in March.
“A number of Housebuilders stopped buying land for a while,” Mark said. “But after the initial lockdown, all of a sudden they were selling homes quicker than they could build them. And when their land banks started dwindling, they needed to start topping them up with new land opportunities to replenish their order books.
“What it all means is that in the latter part of 2020 we’ve been marketing sites that were delayed in the first half of the year, sites that were going to be marketed in the second half of the year anyway, as well as sites that have been brought forward by the possible tax regime changes in March.”
In the previous three years Bidwells has sold in excess of £600m of land representing some 16-17,000 plots, which puts these current numbers into context.
Mark added:
“We’ve reacted decisively to the market rebounding after the initial lockdown, by advising our clients to hit the market while it was hot and the convergence of these factors has been very good for both us and our clients.
“You always need a bit of luck and we’ve had that, but our team has been very good at reading the tea leaves too.”
If the plots currently on the market with Bidwells were all built out and sold at an average house price of £250,000, it would result in a GDV of between £4bn to £5bn. In addition, the team’s longer-term strategic land bank is now in excess of 100,000 plots.
Mark added:
“The Residential Development team is certainly doing its bit to help the UK economy recover and it explains why we are all so incredibly busy. Hopefully the success we’ve had in the second half of 2020 will continue with a positive start to 2021.”
