Brownfield regeneration is ‘sorely needed’ – claim

Land plots currently account for just 1.4% of for-sale stock listed on the market, yet demand is high, with 55% of these already being snapped up by developers, figures from Sirius Property Finance show.

In his most recent Budget statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced £1.8 billion of government money to help fund the regeneration of brownfield land across the country as part of a mission to satisfy the ever-intensifying need for new homes.

The research by Sirius Property Finance shows that the need for these additional land plots is clear, as current levels account for a very small proportion of overall residential sales listings.

Across Britain, there are some 677,533 residential property opportunities listed on the current market, with just shy of 10,000 of these coming in the form of land plots available for development – equating to just 1.4% of the total market.

What’s more, 55% of these plots have already gone under offer or sold subject to contract.

Swansea is home to the highest level of land plot availability, accounting for 1.9% of current residential listings. Aberdeen (1%) and Bradford (1%) are the only other major cities where land plots account for at least one per cent of the current market.

While land plot availability may be scarce, demand is high. In Bournemouth, 77% of all land plots listed on the market have already been marked as under offer or sold subject to contract, while Bristol (68%), Newcastle (67%), Cardiff (60%), Edinburgh (57%) and Nottingham (57%), are also home to above-average levels of demand.

Nicholas Christofi, managing director of Sirius Property Finance, comments: “Land plots currently account for a minute proportion of available property purchasing opportunities but the appetite for these plots is clear, with more than half of those listed already being snapped up across the nation.”

“We need more homes and we need them quickly. Opening up the nation’s brownfield is just one step in addressing this shortage and while it will utilise land that has otherwise been overlooked for quite some time, it certainly won’t solve the problem in its entirety.”

The table below shows the availability of land plots as a percentage of all for sale stock in each area, as well as demand based on the percentage of land plots that are already sold subject to contract or under offer: