6 Green Flags for Land Searching
The world of property development can be a risky and treacherous domain. Partly this is due to the extensive regulations and guidelines set out in the NPPF and planning system, but that’s not the full picture. It is also down to the sheer amount of natural and man-made factors that can essentially deem a development as dead in the water.
Understanding what signs tip the scales towards a successful planning approvable and build deliverability is paramount, and the number one concern of this article. We have to know what the Green Flags of Searching for Land are, because if we end up overlooking a red flag, then we risk spending considerable investment, time and energy into what could inevitably result in a refusal or negative equity.
In this article we will outline the 6 Green Flags to look out for when searching for sites, whether that be on SearchLand or another other land sourcing tool out there, because it serves as a great foundation for avoiding risk and delivering high quality housing. If you haven't already make sure to sign up to our email list, or contact us directly by filling out the contact form at the bottom of this article.
Open Sesame
It seems simple, but being able to have full access to your site is essential. Without it the project is effectively useless. Moreover, suppose there is access, what if there is a public path going directly through your site?
A few years ago I was searching for a house to buy in Cambridge, I found this beautiful little two bed semi-detached that was wonderfully kept and the price perfectly aligned with my budget. However, once we parked up to arrive at the viewing, looking for the front door, we seemed to have walked through the garden to get to the front door! This was odd. When speaking to the owner, he reluctantly explained that the garden path was actually a public right of way and that he had been trying to get this removed through planning – with no luck. I left thinking ‘poor guy’, because I could see now why the house was not able to sell!
This is why being able to get access in and out safely, and being able to secure full private rights of way inside the curtilage is a crucial detail to ensure, but this is only the tip of the iceberg. The speed of the road, and the visibility of accessing in and out of a site needs to be considered, additionally ensuring we are able to secure legal access is crucial, to ensure there are no ransom strips that will effectively make our site at whim of another owner!
Crystal Ball Says Go
You can learn a lot from reading previous planning applications, and not just the approvals, but the rejection too! When searching for sites, discovering what gained planning approval, or alternatively why the development did not get complete, can be a major green flag. This data provides us with pre-application guidance before any consultants have even been employed. Risk has dramatically been reduced, as it can be tough for planning authorities to apply a refusal if there is concrete evidence of previous approval for a similar scheme. Alternatively, if the site has had a prior refusal, then proposing the same scheme would be the definition of insanity! Instead try to discern why the previous application didn’t get approval, as this is huge data for what the planners definitely don’t want to see.
No Boat Required
Flooding, even in Zone 2 areas can be very costly, and if a site is in Zone 3 then you might be better off investing in a ship. All jokes aside this is an area that poses great risk to developers, as high saturated soils can degrade foundations, increase chances of toxic mould and are at risk for flash floods! Volume Metric Ltd at this point in time will automatically dismiss sites that are in Flood Zone 3, and be very cautious when investigating sites on Flood Zone 2, as we would then be subject to more investment and risk assessments that could potentially make the site unviable. However Flood Zone 1 and none at all will give us the green light into looking further into the site, as this dramatically reduces the risk of flooding. Of course if the site is partially at risk of flooding in Zone 2 there are mitigating measures that can be taken such as planting of trees etc, as this could be unlocked potentially, so a level of discernment is necessary.
It’s Perfectly Ordinary
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) or Sites of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) both pose great risk to property developers, as these areas have much more planning restrictions put upon them, to the point when it’s safer just to assume refusal. No amount of wishful thinking is going to help when it comes to sites like this. Pure strategy is needed to navigate the strict scrutiny in these areas – perhaps in the future we will have the appetite to tackle such a challenge, however for the time being these sites will go straight to the discard pile for us personally. I love it when I see a site that is just a simple pattern break within or around the settlement area, and fits within the class of urban areas that can support our claim for sustainable development.
A Healthy Nutritional Diet
Nutrient Neutrality is an interesting area of NPPF because it is unclear exactly how to actually implement it. If a development adds excessive nitrogen and phosphorus into the watercourse through surface water run off and other means, then this can cause an imbalance of nutrients into the protected waterways leading to a problem called ‘eutrophication’. This is basically when algae forms on top of the water, blocking sunlight to organisms and severely damaging natural habitats for wildlife!
However this is where checking the Local Plan of your local authority to see whether development is consented in areas with Nutrient Neutrality, and will set out guidelines to ensure that mitigation measures for nutrient imbalances are met. Alternatively, the best green flag is when there is no requirement for Nutrient Neutrality at all for your site.
Quit Living The Past
Heritage concerns can dramatically affect the restrictions on development, and this is not just limited to Listed Buildings. Scheduled Monuments, Historical Parks, World Heritage Sites and Registered Battlefields all have varying degrees of viability when it comes to property development. For example Grade II listed buildings are notoriously frustrating when it comes to development, and are often at the whim of conservation officers making subjective judgments on what constitutes ‘an appropriate intervention to a heritage asset’.
Nationally important Archeological sites and historic buildings are given strict legal protection under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979, which makes it a highly specialised area of development, needing to employ more consultants and precision strategy on these areas. Again this does not automatically mean a development cannot be achieved, however if we are considering green flags only, then having a site free from such restrictions is incredibly worth looking into.
The Green Flags
The 6 Green flags that I have presented to you above are a great foundation for quick fire assessment for what constitutes a baseline viable project. Of course not all of these need to be green flags, however the capacity on whether or not a developer is able to take on this risk depends entirely on their risk appetite. Here at VOLUME METRIC Ltd, we stick to these 6 green flags within reason, because there are so many opportunities out there waiting to be unlocked, so taking on a red flag, does not seem like the wise thing to do if we can avoid it.
First and foremost we learnt that Access in, out and within the site is crucial to securing the viability of the site from the get go. Then we can take a look at the planning context and history of the site to see if we can gather any clues from the previous planning applications, whether that be positive or negative to inform our decisions going forward. Simultaneously we need to be checking the Flood Zone of the site, to ensure that we are no riskier than Zone 2. Also we must check the archeological and heritage data to ensure that there are no restrictions there to be concerned of, and finally, check the local plan to ensure that nutrient neutrality guidelines are adhered to if required.
You may notice that Green Belt land was not included, and for good reason. People often hear Green Belt and automatically think no. But that is not true, however there are strict National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) guidelines associated with Green Belt, so this requires nuance. We will be deep diving into this in more detail in future articles.
Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to risk mitigation on property development, and in future journal entries we can delve deeper into them, for want of keeping this article short. Hopefully you found this article interesting and valuable, please feel free to subscribe to our website if you thought so. Additionally if you would like to invest in us or joint venture with us then please fill in the contact form below.
