This week we carried out an interactive land training session with Land & New Homes Network member Gibbs Gillespie for the staff across their 8 offices and whenever we hold a session like this we always see the metaphorical light bulb moment! On talking to estate agents about land or development sites its often the perception that they are looking for that next big parcel of land on the edge of town primed and ready for a large scale development however, whilst this is important, the truth is in many city’s, towns and villages the real opportunities have been under our noses all along – we just weren’t looking in the right place.
Take this recent session for example, we saw a variety of sites including garages, pubs, businesses with owners looking for an exit strategy, properties with large plots, retail units prime for residential conversion and many, many more. The point is when these opportunities are highlighted, on more than one occasion, we heard ‘I’ve driven around this area for years and just didn’t spot it’ Now that’s not necessarily the fault of the agent, if they haven’t been previously alerted to the opportunities then why would they – hence the training. You can also hear the mind clicking through the revenue impact, not just of the land sale or land acquisition but unit instructions generated as a result of the development – not to mention all the spin off income that a site feeds into a business such as additional properties into a property management portfolio, other local houses to sell, financial services, conveyancing etc
Going forward however it’s is a different story. Our member firm now has an eagle eyed team out in their market places each and every day, no longer simply driving to an appointment but alert to the potential on each and every journey they take – after all, its all around us!
If you would like to know how we can help you see your local opportunity then we would love to hear from you.
