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  • HPH214 : What self-builders can learn from commercial land buyers – with Rob Wiggans from RMP Property

    HPH214 : What self-builders can learn from commercial land buyers – with Rob Wiggans from RMP Property

    Rob Wiggans shares his expert tips on how to find a plot of land for a self build project.

    Interview with Rob Wiggans

    Rob Wiggans studied for a law degree before entering into a graduate apprenticeship with Taylor Wimpey. It was a two-year scheme where he shadowed people in each department, including production, sales, finance and technical. He chose to move into strategic land, starting off in a commercial role before moving to where he was physically going out and finding land. He now works in property investment with RMP Property (now the Property Hub).

     

    Portfolios had a fairly even split between land for immediate development, and long-term future projects

    Land Teams in each region would consist of no more than 10 people, and would include the Land Director, Land Managers who form the relationships with the agents and negotiate the deals, and an Estimator who crunches the numbers to check whether there will be enough profit to make the project viable.

    Rob explains that in his experience of national house-builders, each region would have between 12 and 18 live sites at any one time. The staff would either work in the Strategic or Immediate Land team.

    Strategic Land – In most of the strategic land cases the house builder doesn’t yet own the land. It has no planning permission but they are progressing it through the planning system and promoting it for development. They are able to progress it by having a long term ‘option agreement’ with the landowner whereby they give an initial payment of, say, £10,000 to promote it through the planning system for 10 years. If it still hasn’t progressed at that time they might offer another £10,000 for a further 10 years, and so on. If they successfully take it through planning and purchase the land they will take a 20% discount, because of the significant costs involved with promoting it through the planning system. It benefits the developer because although they are taking the risk, they save a significant amount of money on the purchase price, and also benefits the landowner who receives a good price for not having to take any risk or have any financial outlay.

    The developers will look for when there might be a new local plan being published and use that window as an opportunity to bring it forward for development. Usually they will look for land on the edge of existing settlements, or follow where the growth is going in terms of new infrastructure, such as link roads or stations being built.

    Immediate Land – This is land that the house builder owns, has planning and is ready to be built on. This often comes their way from agents who approach the national house builders. According to Rob, the network of land and planning professionals in any given area is very small, so when a good land opportunity arises it is known very quickly to them all.

     

    It’s about looking where other people might not be looking

    One tactic Rob uses is to monitor planning applications, and will approach a landowner as soon as a planning decision has been granted. A landowner being approached directly might be keen to proceed if you’re able to demonstrate that you can do a quick transaction and are offering a good land value, instead of putting it on the open market and paying agent fees (typically of 1-3%).  Rob suggests being persistent, not giving up and having the right positive mindset.

    Planning applications vary in quality dramatically so care needs to be taken with the due diligence. Things to look out for are access, ground conditions, ecology, drainage and service connections.

    “It’s a nice, idyllic flat piece of land, but people always say, ‘All the issues are below the ground, not above it,’ and when it comes to land, it’s very true.  It’s about trying to uncover the unknowns.”

     

    Establish a relationship with land agents

    Because the networks tend to be quite small, it is advisable to contact your local agents, who will be part of the network, and build a relationship with them. Rather than High Street estate agents, these might be local land agents or surveyors specialising in land.

     

    Don’t be put off by auctions

    The fear of buying at auction is always that there must be something wrong with the land. While this might sometimes be true it doesn’t automatically mean that it’s not an opportunity to be pursued. It might be at auction because the landowner’s circumstances just require a quick sale, or if there is something wrong with the land, can it be solved and can you get value?

    If you’re interested in something that has a few unknowns and you don’t have the time to do due diligence, if it fails to sell at auction you can approach the owner afterwards, say you’re interested and buy yourself some time to carry out the checks.

     

    Find out who owns the land

    By setting up an account with Land Registry, you are able to find out the owner of any piece of land for as little as £3. So if you’ve seen something you think would make a suitable plot you can approach the owner directly to see if they might be interested in selling.

     

    Trust your instincts

    “I’ve found that when you think to yourself, ‘There’s something not right here,’ and you don’t know what it is, if you don’t know and you still have that feeling, don’t do it.  Trust your gut is probably one of the biggest pieces of advice I could recommend.”

     

    Assemble your team

    Rob advises growing your team from the outset. Even for a single self-build plot he suggests employing a highly regarded and recommended conveyancing law expert, an architect, a planning consultant and a land agent. Even though you will need to pay them all a fee, you might be saving yourself significant problems in the future.

     

    Have an exit plan

    Ensure you have a clear idea of what’s going to happen once you get planning and prepare for how you’re going to build it. Engage with reviewing build costs straight away and understand those costs before you end up spending too much money.

     

    Know when to walk away

    Even if there is an opportunity that you’re really keen on, but something’s not quite working, instead of investing many months of effort then know when is the right time to say enough is enough, and move on. Rob stresses that there are always plenty of other opportunities available if you know where to look.

     

    “In simple terms, don’t see any barriers. Try and think outside the box. How can you get in contact with people for the land that you want?”

     

    Find out more

    Visit the website of the Property Hub

    Follow the Property Hub on Twitter

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Rob Wiggans.

     

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  • HPH144 : What do you do when you can’t find land?

    HPH144 : What do you do when you can’t find land?

    Three self-builders explain their next steps after struggling to find land upon which to build their new homes.

    Interview with Corrine Mitchell

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    Corrine and her husband first entertained the idea of a self build back in 2005, but put their first offer in on a plot in 2008. The site proved to be problematic with electricity cables running overhead, and they eventually pulled out. It wasn’t until 2013, when they became aware of Graven Hill, that they had finances in place and thought there was a real opportunity. The intention was to use finances in the bank to pay for the land and sell their existing property to cover the costs of the build. They eventually decided that the Graven Hill development wouldn’t be right for them; they wanted to get away from living on an estate, particularly one that could be a building site for the next decade, and it didn’t seem easily suited to building to Passivhaus standard.

    The biggest challenges to finding land in their area have been the high cost and sites ideal for a small house with a garden, garage and workshop, being bought by developers to put two dwellings on. Corrine has also found that local land tends to be sold by sealed bids, a system which she feels disadvantaged and frustrated by.

    Corrine has learned many lessons from her experience of looking for land. The main one has been how to appraise a site: looking for additional factors that might affect the cost and be problematic, and in future if she found a site without planning permission, she would probably hire a planning consultant. She sees her chances of finding land in the future as relying on word of mouth, getting in before anyone else hears about a plot. Eventually Corrine expects that they might move away from the area to where land is at a price that they are happier to pay, but for the time being she wants to remain local to where their friends and lives currently are.

    Corrine’s advice to anyone else looking for land is to be prepared for it to be a time intensive task. You really need to put the work in, registering with estate agents and ringing them all every two or three weeks to see if there’s anything new available.

    “Google Earth does come in very handy. You can walk down roads, have a look around, look at what’s nearby. But when you get there often it’s a bit different to what you expect so you’ve got to go and do the research and you’ve got to go and have a good look. Especially for the issues that might cost you money when you come to build.”

    Land searches for Corrine and her husband are currently on hold while they take on a renovation project instead. They have bought a small terraced house and are taking their time to do it up, using it as a chance to gain valuable experience that they can eventually put into a self build.

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    Despite the renovation project, Corrine is still keeping one eye open for land opportunities and says that hopefully next year they will have finished the works, can sell up and start looking for land seriously once again.

    Interview with Nigel Banks

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    Nigel Banks lives in Leeds with his wife and two children and has had challenges finding a suitable plot within an existing established urban area. Initially he was looking for self build plots in a fairly wide area, but eventually decided to narrow it down to within two miles of their eldest son’s primary school.

    Largely using Google Maps, cycling and walking the streets, they found two or three potentially viable plots. They approached the Diocese of Leeds, who they discovered were the owners of one plot, only to be told they already had plans for it. These plans, Nigel later discovered, involved an application for 14 houses! Another plot they were interested in ultimately had plans for six flats, offices and basement parking, whereas Nigel had just intended to put on a single house with a small garden.

    After two years of searching, Nigel decided to instead build a Passivhaus office in his back garden. Shortly after he started digging the foundations his wife came across a Victorian house, around half a mile away, in need of major renovation. They realised they could refurbish it to near Passivhaus standard and moved in a year ago.

    Had they not gone down the refurbishment route, Nigel thinks one option he might have pursued would have been trying to find other like-minded people locally to set up a cohousing project.

    Having invested a huge amount of time and energy into their new project, and being fairly happy and settled where they now are, Nigel has shelved plans to try and self build. He emphasises however that the dream to build his own home is still there, though it may be another 15 or 20 years before that can become a reality.

    Triple glazed sliding sash windows from Green Building Store 34

    Interview with Rob Rickey

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    After taking a course in Environmental Design at Cardiff University and later the Passivhaus Designer course, Rob was keen to live in a low energy home.

    They wanted to stay close to their existing community where all their friends lived. This limited the search area and meant that they really only saw a handful of opportunities. One was a barn conversion with planning permission, but this was reflected in the price! They also considered developing another site that had planning permission for four dwellings. By selling or renting three they could fund their own build. However, the location wouldn’t have been that quiet as it backed onto a school.

    Ultimately they decided they couldn’t afford it and so they looked for a property to retrofit. This was much easier as dozens of opportunities came onto the market each week.

    Rob says he’s quite happy in his retrofitted home – where he’s reduced his gas usage by 75% – and has no desire to self build! He can get his fix from his work, designing houses for other people.

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    Find out more

    Follow Nigel Banks on Twitter

    Visit the website of Rob Rickey Design

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