Professional Fees & Stamp Duty
You should also take in to account professional fees as part of your land acquisition calculations and financial projections.
Professional fees are likely to include solicitor’s fees, planning consultant’s fees, planning application costs, and the price for site-survey work – these are all essential if you are to protect your investment and ultimately extract the maximum value from your acquisition.
Stamp Duty, or to give it its full name Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) will also be payable if the land is over a certain price – The current SDLT threshold is £125,000 for residential properties and £150,000 for non-residential land and properties.
Planning Permission, Brownfield & Greenfield Land
Any investor or developer considering investing in development land or building plots should also familiarise themselves with the different categories of land to understand the issues that affect each type, together with the rules and regulations that are in place and that may affect your development plans.
Planning Permission
Incorrectly interpreting the Local Planning Authorities Development Plan, the planning regulations and planning permissions attached to the development land setting out what you can and can’t use the land for could ultimately scupper your venture before you’ve even started.
Greenfield Land
Brownfield and Greenfield land are by far the most common forms of development land sourced by investors, house builders and property developers and both have their issues.
Greenfield land is usually undeveloped land and is generally the most common choice for many property developers and house builders because it typically has not been built on previously, there are unlikely to be any contaminated land issues and the sites often already include natural landscaping, parks and forest areas.
Brownfield Land
Brownfield land describes land that was once occupied by another building usually for industrial or commercial purposes.
Brownfield land is probably the easier option if you want to obtain planning permission for the construction of new buildings on the site, as some form of building was previously there.
Brownfield land does however have additional factors that must be carefully evaluated before acquisition and these can include site contamination and pollution from previous site uses.
If you suspect contaminated land may be an issue it is best to get specialist advice as remediation costs can be substantial.
Expert Development Land Investment Solutions
As leading independent property investment specialists Investment Property Partners offer expert advice and support to clients across our specialist areas of expertise helping them to achieve their investment objectives.
If you are an investor, property developer or builder seeking to acquire or dispose of development land, building land or development plots contact our land and property investment team today to discuss how Investment Property Partners can help you.