Inside Property Development

Land Trading, Option Agreements and Promotions – What They Are and How to Use Them

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For this week's episode of Inside Property Development, Paul covers a subject a lot of his trainees at the Milbank Land Academy are asking about - land trading, option agreements and profit agreements. He explains how they are different and shares some use cases for each of them.

If you have a question about property development or today´s episode, we would love to hear from you! Please drop your questions in the comments section on YouTube or reach out to Paul directly at https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk/contact-us.

Your input will help shape future episodes and ensure that Paul is covering the topics that matter most to you, so it would be very much appreciated.


KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • The majority of profit in property development comes from finding off-market sites, securing them at a sensible price, and maximising their value through strategic planning and design enhancements.
  • Securing land via options, especially £1 options is a very good way of getting land at the right price. Landowners are happy to do this. You do the work to establish whether the land can be built on, and they know how much you will pay to take final ownership.
  • Land trading enables you to acquire off-market sites on favourable terms, maximising it´s value through planning, and then either sell the contract or rights, rather than building to make your profit.
  • Honing your fact finding and relationship building skills is essential, regardless of what approach you use.
  • Landowners, like all people, want certainty so offering them a fixed price helps to get deals over the line.
  • Promotional deals are best suited for long-term land opportunities with uncertain future value. They let landowners and developers share in the uplift once planning permission is secured, rather than setting a fixed price up front.


    • BEST MOMENTS

    “Finding off-market sites, securing them on sensible terms, typically one pound option agreements and then adding maximum planning value… creates massive value.”

    “They (landowners) are way, way, way less inclined to agree to a promotion type deal or a discount to market value deal when it's relatively short term.”


    EPISODE RESOURCES

    Milbank Academy Scorecard - https://millbanklandacademy.scoreapp.com


    ABOUT THE HOST 

    Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years & experience in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning consents.

    Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder,

    Barratt Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a multimillion-pound, award-winning property development company, Millbank Group.

    In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets the big housebuilders don’t want you to know! 

    Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property Development at London South Bank University.


    CONTACT METHOD

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs

    Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk

    Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulhiggsofficial

    YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@InsidePropertyDevelopment


    This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/


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    Inside Property DevelopmentBy Paul Higgs