Buying land and development sites as an investment opportunity.
Starting from the ground up - buying land
There is, as ever, a strong requirement for more land upon which to build, due to the well documented housing shortage in London.
At the end of 2006, London Development Research (LDR) said that it expected landowners to sell in the region of 300 large development sites in the following 12 to 18 months.
Furthermore, it was reported that over two-thirds of development sites in the planning system at the time were owned by companies who intended to build. A lot of this stock may now have entered the marketplace.
Buying land to build-to-sell, or build-to-rent?
Land is traditionally sold to developers and house builders. However, we have started to notice an emerging trend in which an increasing number of rental investors are purchasing land sites with planning permission already granted, in order to construct their own properties and consequently lock in their own equity.
As they are not looking to re-sell their residential units, their profit margins are generally lower, while they tend to tailor their end product so as to ensure that the best possible rental returns are achievable.
What types of land sites are for sale?
Land and sites for sale typically include brown-field sites such as:
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