Did you know that over 50% of commercial property sales, including land and development sites fall through before completion? At Berkshire Corporate we are serious, experienced property developers who only offer on suitable development land when we are confident that it is right for us. This means that:
If you would like a no-obligation offer on any land that you own, then please request a call back by filling out the short form to the left of this text.
The process of sourcing land for development and purchasing it is referred to as “land acquisition”. Part of our development service involves land acquisition in London and the surrounding areas. Land sourcing and site acquisitions can involve various strategies including:
Although land can be acquired for a number of reasons, we purchase it purely for development purposes. But at Berkshire Corporate we don’t just develop land for a profit, we develop land to make a tangible difference to the housing crisis that the UK is currently facing. A scarcity in housing mixed with a growing population is causing house prices to rise at an unaffordable rate. Unfortunately, some land agents and sellers are taking advantage of this fact and asking for more than their plot is worth. This results in it staying on the market for months if not years. This is a national problem that we want to directly tackle and that is why we need your help to do so. By selling your land you are not only receiving a potentially life-changing sum of money for a vacant plot but also making a tangible difference to your local area and the UK housing market as a whole.
Part of the land acquisition process that we follow involves checking land to ensure that it is suitable for development before we make an offer. For land to be of interest it must be in an area that is desirable for urban regeneration and its likelihood for obtaining planning permission. In layman’s terms, we only purchase land that has existing housing around it.
So, we would not consider:
Although land which has planning permission is desirable we do still look at land which does not have this in place. We do not expect you to spend your time analysing whether or not your land is suitable for us as this is our job and we want to make the whole process as easy and stress-free for you as possible. This is why we do all of the work for you starting with a desktop analysis on your plot to verify that it would be a suitable purchase for us before meeting you on site. After this we conduct further analysis and finally making a no-obligation offer with a breakdown of our workings.
Even if your plot would not be suitable for one of our developments we are happy to work alongside land owners to help them get maximum value for their plot and understand the intricate workings behind it. Developing land can be complex and by understanding what a developer looks for you can ensure that you are receiving a fair offer for your land. This process can be started by using the “Get in Touch” button at the top of this page. We are here to help and getting in touch is the first step in a potentially life changing decision.
The quickest way to sell your land is through private land acquisition. This is where you work directly with an experienced developer rather than through a commercial estate agent. As we mentioned at the start of this page 50% of commercial property sales (including land) fall through before completion. This is usually after months of conducting viewings and negotiating offers, both of which are extremely time-consuming tasks. By working directly with a credible development company such as Berkshire Corporate you bypass all of this hassle and get an instant, no-obligation market value offer. Experienced companies with a track record of successful developments already know what due diligence needs to be undertaken and have an established team ready to conduct these searches. It is important that you verify a developer is credible before you enter negotiations to ensure that they can deliver on the quick sales process that they promise. We are very open about our extensive experience and you can view all of our previous projects on the “Our Projects” tab at the bottom of this page or alternately by clicking here. If you are interested in this process then you can book a call back using the form to the right of this text and discover how we can make you a formal offer on your land within five working days.
Before you agree to the sale of your land it is important that you:
Although planning permission is always desirable for property developers and makes the valuation process easier. Some developers will not consider land without planning however we are happy to offer on land subject to it passing the planning process which we will work with you to achieve using our established team of architects and planning consultants. Planning permission can be the difference between tens and hundreds of thousand pounds and we are happy to walk you through this process and show you how to get maximum value for your plot at no cost to yourself.
If you have any questions about the land acquisition process in the UK and the different pieces of knowledge that you can arm yourself with before selling, then please do not hesitate to contact us for a FREE discovery call using the “Get in Touch” link above. We feel it is important that all vendors get a fair deal in a sales transaction and are happy to help and inform in any way that we can.
Only if you sell through commercial land agencies or estate agents. If you sell through a private land acquisition company such as ours then there are no fees other than the legal ones which you will pay directly to your conveyancer.
We understand that some landowners may dream of developing their own properties either to live in or to sell for a profit. We also understand that not all landowners will have the knowledge, experience or, “Professional Team” necessary to undertake this task. Although we do not build homes for landowners to live in (like a build company would) there are situations where we would consider joint venturing with landowners to build properties with the intention of selling them for a shared profit. If you would like to discuss this opportunity further, then please click here to contact us today.
We do not offer land for sale in the same sense as an estate agent but we do offer the opportunity to co-exist in our upcoming property developments. This means that you can get involved in property development without the capital or time required to purchase land. If you would like to discover more about this process, then you can do so by clicking on the “Property Development” link at the bottom of this page or by clicking here.
You can find land either on market or off market. On market is using websites such as Rightmove and Zoopla. Off market can be marketing campaigns or walking the street and finding a location (which you can then find the details on the land registry for the plot). We utilise both approaches as it enables us to build a pipeline of potential development opportunities for us to appraise.
If you source the land without the landowners contacting you, then you can purchase the title deeds of the land from the HM Land Registry. We then contact the vendor privately to see if they would be interested in selling their plot of land (hint: not all landowners know they have land with the potential to develop on). If the landowner contacts us on the back of a campaign, then we can look into the characteristics of the land and appraise it to formalise an offer amount for the plot of land. We are heavily involved in off market sourcing which is our main marketing channel. This is done using the latest prop tech software to carefully select sites with development potential that allow us to maximise the value using our knowledge and expertise.
Depending on whether you are dealing with estate agents or landowners directly will not necessarily change the way we offer on land. We create offer packs which serve as a guide as to who we are and what we can offer. The offer packs are important because it allows us to be open with the agents/vendors to show them how we have calculated our offer price. We pride ourselves on our core values of: INTEGRITY, INNOVATION, SECURITY, and we show that in our offer packs – these have created a powerful tool which has enabled us to have offers accepted on our deals.
Land is a very powerful asset. We primarily look to purchase land for our own developments; however, you can leverage aspects of land that you can obtain such as planning permission. Let’s say you have an offer accepted on a plot of land without planning permission, you can then gain the relevant planning permission and uplift the value of the land you have purchased and sell the land with planning. This is an investment strategy known as ‘planning uplift’ or ‘land flipping’. You can also source the deal onto other developers/investors for a fee. This is also an investment strategy, which enables you to help others in the industry by securing deals for them with an agreed fee for your sourcing service being utilised.
It’s important to know that not all land is developable. Plots such as greenbelt land, SSSI, and areas of outstanding natural beauty are all areas which are extremely challenging to obtain planning to build on. Primarily, developers investigate brownfield land (previously developed) as you are more likely to gain relevant planning permissions on this. You can also investigate greenfield land (not previously developed) as you are able to obtain planning in cases where you can meet the required criteria for the local authorities/councils.
Ultimately, you do not. We can have a very good idea by understanding the local area (which is why we at Berkshire Corporate pride ourselves on a very thorough due diligence process). This is where it is important as a property development company that we have a very good team in place to complete all transactions with the professionalism and efficiency that we require. This enables us to speak with architects and planning consultants to understand what has the best chance of obtaining planning permission for build. You then submit the planning application to the local council who will either grant or deny you permission.