Planning Permission Case Study - Private Landowner (Confidential)

Challenge

Vail Williams was instructed by a private landowner to support them in the sale of land for housing development in Surrey.

This followed close monitoring of the Guildford Local Plan process, which had identified the site and adjacent land parcels, as a possible housing allocation.

Working with the client, we assessed how best to sell the land to achieve the best possible return for our client, analysing whether a combined masterplan planning/sale approach with the neighbouring land was needed.

We then worked with consultants to demonstrate site access satisfied the Highways Authority, maximised the development area, as well as identifying a Suitable Alternative Natural Green Space (SANG) as the Council did not have adequate provision.

How we helped

• The marketing timeframe for a sale linked to securing planning was important – the higher the planning risk, the lower the offers would be
• As the site was intended to be allocated, we recommended marketing commenced once the Local Plan was adopted
• This would provide buyers with greater certainty on deliverability, maximising potential offers
• It also allowed us to undertake a highways pre-application to establish whether current access was suitable to serve the site
• We also explored discussions with the neighbouring landowner, Persimmon Homes, and commissioned site surveys, before marketing started
• Once marketing of the land commenced, numerous offers were received
• The best offer was judged to be from Antler Homes PLC, based on an independent development with no link to adjacent allocations
• Terms were finalised based on an assumed development density, with overage provisions and a transparent mechanism for dealing with abnormal site costs, and unforeseen planning payments
• We worked closely with our client and their solicitor on the transactional management which was conditional on securing planning consent at the buyer’s cost and risk

Result:

• Planning permission was granted for 35 dwellings, leading to a successful site sale
• This included 40% affordable units at a ‘blended’ price equivalent to £173,000 per dwelling
• The deal exchanged in just over three months and securing planning consent took 12 months from submission.