Developing confidence in the UK property market
As the year begins to draw to a close, some very positive signs are emerging that would suggest confidence among the major housing developers is starting to return. For the first time in the last couple of years, there’s talk of major new land acquisitions.
During the latter half of 2009 there seems to have been a slow, yet steady, month-by-month recovery in house prices. This has lead to a wider sense of confidence that is spreading to the major developers…
For example, I read today that Barratt Developments announced a 30% increase in reservations per site. In fact, they’ve indicated that they’re once again in the market for new land acquisitions, proving they believe the worst is now behind us. Meanwhile, house builder Persimmon has just announced they’ve got a very healthy order book of £500 million in sales already confirmed for 2010.
This sense of confidence is certainly supported by activity at our land agency website, www.landlounge.com. We’ve noticed a significant surge in the demand for good quality development land over the last few months from developers large and small.
The fact that the larger house builders are now looking to source new sites should act as a really positive sign for us smaller developers, refurbishers and land finders. I’ve certainly taken the hint and have already committed to develop 18 new houses during 2010. I’ll let you know how I get on.
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