I Am A Property Developer – Ask Me Anything!

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "18/01/2014 - 09:35":

Tony,

Some great information there, thanks. I will trawl through the planning portal for similar projects and draw up a list of contacts and take it from there.

I take your point re the possible ransom strip. Initially I had factored that in but more recently I was swayed to thinking that my back garden led straight onto an adopted highway. Only a professional eye over the documents will give me the answer, hence my search for a recommended Planning Consultant.

I had come across Land Planning Associates (Suffolk) on another landlord forum, they come well recommended. I don't know whether you have heard of them?

They are obviously experienced but are not local.

I'm almost tempted to go for a non-local consultant that is well endorsed on an online forum than a local firm that I have no 'history' of.

What's your opinion on that?

Many thanks,
Martin.

Reply to the comment left by "martin wheeler" at "18/01/2014 - 15:58":

Martin,

Why is an online forum recommendation any better than asking experienced people in your area for their recommendations? And though these Suffolk people may be excellent, how well do they know the Milton Keynes planning policies? If they don't, you will be paying for their person to read this up, and/or you may submit an application that has been designed to national standards but falls foul of some local peculiarity.

In my opinion, nothing beats local knowledge and assessing each consultant for yourself. Do they communicate well? How well do they know the local planning officers and decision-makers? Also, think about it from their point of view. A Suffolk-based firm may not get many clients from the Milton Keynes area. If your application fails, they may just shrug their shoulders and send you their final invoice. A local person, in contrast, is going to drive past your site once a month or so and be reminded of the failure: it's going to be on their record, and local people, large and small, will notice it, whereas they won't notice a Suffolk firm that's been helicoptered in for a failed single-unit application.

I forgot to mention: you may also need a highways consultant. A planning consultant will also be useful for finding out about the dreaded S106/CIL roof taxes on your new-build.

Reply to the comment left by "Mark Alexander" at "16/01/2014 - 18:03":

Hi Mark & Tony

Thanks for the replies, in an ideal world I'd always prefer a local company for the reasons outlined, but given the specialised nature of these Deed of Trust agreements and the importance of getting them right to avoid HMRC problems down the line, I'd rather go with someone who is completely comfortable and if they have a solicitor working with them all the better.

Reply to the comment left by "Tony Atkins" at "18/01/2014 - 16:31":

Tony,

Great advice again, thank you.

I can see you place great importance on 'local', stands to reason given what we are trying to achieve. Will take on board.

Out of interest, may I ask which area you operate in?

Thanks Martin - I operate in Reading, Thame/Oxford and south Oxfordshire.

Hi Tony,

My company has partnered with an experienced property developer with a good track. He has found and exchanged on a property he wishes to develop. However we don't want to tie up the capital as we intend to do a number of developments. Do you have any advice on finding private funders for JV's?
Many thanks,

Edward

Reply to the comment left by "Edward Eatock" at "25/01/2014 - 16:35":

Hello Edward,

I assume you've felt obliged to purchase this property, rather than requesting an option agreement, because the private owner wants to sell and you don't want to lose the site. This inevitably causes problems because it ties up your capital while you seek planning permission, and if you're knocked back on the permission, your capital is dead money until you re-submit or find an exit strategy.

I've little experience in the area of finding private funding, but my amateurish thoughts would be:

1) consider so-called mezzanine funders, who will fund most viable projects but usually want planning in place, and will charge you 1.5% a month and 2% going in and out. This seems to me to be an overly-expensive approach, but it's your call. You can find them in Property Investor News or just a web search.

2) why not a bank? I'm unclear why you need private funding specifically. If the project is viable and offers good returns, they might be open to a joint approach for funding on a project by project basis.

3) ask around local architects, solicitors specialising in property and larger estate agents, to see if they know of people with resources who might be interested in funding or even joining the JV. This might include other local developers with their own sites which would benefit from joining forces.

4) depending on the size of your site and your style of development, local housing associations might be interested in working with a private developer and whatever expertise your company brings to the JV. Again, this might not qualify as private funding, but it could be a good way into other sites where you'd not normally have access. Basically the housing association would offer its resources and access to extra capital as part of a deal in which you would build out a mixed site of private and social housing.

5) again, depending on the site, consider advertising for self-builders, who often have considerable cash resources but struggle to find viable sites. If you give up one of your plots to a self-builder - no CIL or social housing to pay, if current Government proposals go through - in exchange for their injection of capital, this could reduce your leverage sufficiently to meet your purposes.

Reply to the comment left by "Edward Eatock" at "25/01/2014 - 16:35":

Hi Edward

Can you add some figures to this please as follows:-

Land cost
Build Cost
Total project cost
Value on completion

Your stake.
.

New Question

Tony - do you have experience of joining together pairs of cottages? The ones in mind here are in a lovely quiet rural South Oxfordshire setting. It would make a single pretty detached property on a large plot.

Is the uplift in value usually good for this kind of project? I.e. final value compared against sum of value of the two cottages.

Is planning likely to be a struggle? (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty - Chilterns, possible local authority concern over number of smaller rural properties).

Would a new separate garage likely be refused planning, even if designed well?

We own the smaller cottage and the whole project might be beyond us, but it will be good to know whether to do more research ready for when the opportunity arises.

Thanks

Ed

Reply to the comment left by "Ed Atkinson" at "28/01/2014 - 12:09":

Hello Ed,

This sounds like an interesting project, though I've never done one like it: I go the other way, knocking down an existing house or houses to create a large plot and then intensifying the housing density. I'd be sceptical that any uplift in value on a single house would be worth losing one of the units, especially once re-modelling and renovation costs are included. It would have to be a pretty special plot with a clear level of local demand for large houses to make it work, so you need to do your research.

As regards planning, I can't really say without seeing the actual plot. You need to read the local design guide to see what the LPA says about a reduction in housing density and the design of garages. I doubt garages will be refused automatically, so it all depends on the site and whether the design is "in keeping". You could have a chat with the Duty Officer, but they're not always that helpful, so if you have any concerns, perhaps employ a planning consultant and request a half hour meeting with a planning officer to discuss your ideas.