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Guide to Buying Strategic UK Land
The Great British Land Affair makes the dream of UK Strategic Land an achievable reality for you. ✓ See how demand for new homes is making land a high value commodity ✓ Discover how quick and easy it is to become a landowner ✓ Learn about the potential excellent returns
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To find out more call UK 0208 242 4254
2 | Guide to Buying Strategic UK Land
Experts in Creating and Adding Value to Land and Property Worldwide What started many years ago is now a Worldwide business. Knox Worldwide (Knox) are now considered experts in creating and adding value to a diverse range of strategic land for property development opportunities. To fully exploit the value of strategic land acquisition requires a range of technical and planning skills to identify suitable land and then to navigate the difficult planning framework. Until now the obstacles for most potential land investors have been identifying and acquiring strategic land and then maximising the value inherent in the ‘raw asset’. Through Knox these obstacles are reduced. Site Assembly is best described as the preparation of land to enable development through the granting of outline planning consent. Knox is a land site assembly business led by a professional team with combined real estate experience and collective transactions, incorporating real estate acquisition, planning, development and project management. The Knox team are specialists in strategic land site assembly with the greater part of the land we deal in is held by ourselves to promote for future property opportunities, for both third parties and Knox. From this Guide you can understand why Strategic Land in the UK is now a more compelling investment than at any point in history. How can Knox help you?
Jimmy Jous Worldwide Operations
Contents 3 History of UK Land 4 The Changing Face of the UK and the Demand for More Homes
5 Over 2,400 Acres of Green Belt Land is Built on Every Year
6 Identifying and Acquiring Strategic Land 7 Increased Demand for Housing
8 The Increasing Demand for Strategic Land
9 Ten years of Increasing Land Values A Solid 370% Increase
10 How to Purchase Your Land Bespoke Options for Larger Investors
11 The Time to Purchase Strategic Land is Now
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This report is published for general information only and not to be relied upon in any way. Although high standards have been used in the preparation of the information, analysis, views and projections presented in this report, no responsibility or liability whatsoever can be accepted by Knox Worldwide Limited for any loss or damage resultant from any use of, reliance on or reference to the contents of this document.
particular properties or projects. Reproduction of this report in whole or in part is not allowed without prior written approval of Knox Worldwide Limited to the form and content within which it appears.
As a general report, this material does not necessarily represent the view of Knox Worldwide Limited in relation to
Published by Knox Worldwide Limited Š 2011-2013 Knox Worldwide Limited
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Knox Worldwide Limited is a Limited company registered in Gibraltar. Registered number 105235
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The Changing Face of the UK and the Demand for More Homes Much of the countryside in the UK was annexed within what’s known as the ‘Green Belt’ during the 1950’s. The ‘Green Belt’ is a protected area, which was originally created to protect the lush green UK countryside for future generations. It’s now widely accepted by the UK Government to be an unworkable ideal, with the overwhelming demand for new homes making considerable changes in legislation certain – in line with the recommendations of the highly influential Barker Report. In fact, a number of housing, retail and light industrial developments have already taken place within the ‘Green Belt’ and many more are unavoidable over the next few years. Over the past few years there has been a great deal of debate regarding the ‘opening up’ of The Green Belt. But when you consider the shortage of high quality Brownfield Sites and the ambitious housing targets in the South East – set by the
“John Prescott, the former Deputy Prime Minister, is predicting that a further 3,285,000 homes will be required across England over the next 18 years - the vast majority of which are earmarked to be built in the South-East of England.” (Source: ODPM)
Office of the Deputy Prime Minister - it is unavoidable. Many local authorities in the southern part of the country are currently reviewing their Green Belt boundaries in response to meeting housing requirements. As an example, the emerging East of England Plan, which is one of the first of the new Regional Spatial Strategies, makes reference to the need to review Green Belt boundaries in the Northern part of the Thames Gateway Growth area. Official estimates cite a requirement of 3.2 million new homes in the next 20 years. It is this and a rapidly expanding UK population that has forced the government to reconsider earlier land policies regarding The Green Belt. In order to achieve housing targets, we foresee a drastic re-zoning of Green Belt areas.
LONDON
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Over 2,400 Acres of Green Belt Land is Built on Every Year In a recent Parliamentary written answer, the government admitted that it is allowing more than 2,400 acres of green belt to be built on each year. Also true that four per cent of all house building between 2000 2002 was in the Green Belt. It revealed that 162 planning applications in Green Belts went unchallenged between 1997 and 2005. Lincoln - between 1997 and 2001 alone. This does not include the brownfield sites that are built on within the Green Belt each year. The status of five major Green Belts are also under review. These are between Nottingham and Derby, around London, Bristol and Bath, in southeast Dorset, around Poole and around Cheltenham and Gloucester, more housing in Tyne and Wear, Greater Manchester and Merseyside, around London and Cambridge.
In the last year for which figures are available, 111 acres of Green Belt were lost in the North East; 271 in the North West; 148 in Yorkshire and the Humber; 172 in east Midlands; 185 in west Midlands; 123 in the east of England; 36 in London; 1,062 in the South East and 284 in the South West. Thames Gateway Zones of Change 1 Isle of Dogs 2 Deptford and Lewisham 3 Greenwich Peninsula 4 Stratford, Lower Lea, Royal Dock 5 London Riverside and Barking 6 Woolwich, Thameshead, Erith 7 Kent Thameside 8 Medway 9 Grain 10 Sittingbourne, Sheerness 11 Thurrock Riverside 12 Basildon 13 Canvey, Shellhaven 14 Southend
Wickford Park
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Identifing and Acquiring Strategic Land The land we sell has been carefully selected by our expert land team to maximise your opportunity to buy a plot(s) in an area that has good potential. The key to our success is our experienced advisory team of land and the consultants used who exhaustively research, identify and acquire the very best parcels of land available in the UK. We then offer for sale plots of land close to existing residential development boundaries.
Many of our property consultants are multilingual, speaking a large number of different languages between them. We have offices in different countries spread across Europe, the Middle East and Asia allowing us to deal with customers from all over the world – who recognise the value of buying UK land.
CITY MAP KEY City Border City Roads Existing City Developed Area Approved Re-zoning Area Designated Greenbelt Potential Re-zoning Area
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Increased Demand for Housing Population growth is the main driver of household growth. To meet the increased needs for housing in the future it is predicted that the United Kingdom will need to have a total of 27.8 million houses by 2031. Housing stock in the UK grew by 120.000 units in 2009 in contrast to the Government target for 240,000; every year the structural deficit in supply and demand widens*.
Overwhelming Government Support A shortage of residential land was identified in the Barker Report commissioned by the UK Government as the key constraint on increasing housing supply to meet demand. The National Housing and Planning Advice Unity (NHAPU) has estimated a need for 270,000 new homes a year until 2016 to meet demand. The Government announced ‘The Growth Review’ in March 2011, an ambitious set of proposals for further planning reform. In a Written Ministerial Statement, the Minister of State for Decentralisation stated that ‘the Government’s top priority in reforming the planning system is to promote sustainable economic growth and jobs. Government’s clear expectation is that the answer to development and growth should wherever possible be ‘yes’. The ‘Localism Bill’ will empower local communities to make decisions regarding development within the context of the requirement to meet local need. The New Homes Bonus will provide a significant additional incentive for Local Authorities to consider development opportunities in their area and ensure proposals come forward for completion. The New Homes Bonus, which commenced in April 2011, will match fund for 6 years any additional council tax raised for new homes; the financial proceeds being paid directly to the Local Authority. Through supplying high quality land assets, already identified as strategic sites, substantial investment gains will be achieved. Current conditions provide an unprecedented opportunity for strategic land investors to benefit from overwhelming housing demand pressure. www.GreatBritishLandAffair.com
“I’m Very Impressed” I have been in the building trade since the age of 17. Now retired, over the past couple of years I’ve had time on my hands. So I started looking at what I felt would give me a good return on my cash in years to come. I looked at shares, then art, preciours metals, oh and wine! Then land, I knew land had always been a wise choice without fail. I found the Internet had an enormours choice, I spent months looking, eliminated many companies that just were not up to it. My end choice was purchasing 5 plots at Wickford Park. Thank you Knox! Mr Alastair Green London
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The Increasing Demand for Strategic Land To provide the required 4.2 million homes over the next 20 years, more land will have to be made available for housing. To achieve this, local authorities have been set new targets by central Government. When land is re-zoned for future residential development there is a dramatic increase in its value and until the demand for housing is matched by the supply, the value of land will continue to increase as you can see from the graph below. In January 2006, the Valuation Office, HM Revenue & Customs, reported that since late 1983 land has increased from an average of £174,000 per hectare to an average of £2,520,000 per hectare in England.
400.0
Overview Once, the opportunity to buy land with development potential was open only to professional property developers and the larger building firms. Knox are changing all of that forever. We’ve developed a simple, new way for individuals to buy land. Essentially, we take away all of the complexity, by searching for strategic pieces of undeveloped land, dividing it into plots for re-sale to you.
Land Price Indicies 1996 - 2005
350.0 300.0 250.0
Land With Planning Price Index Agricultural land Pricve Index
200.0 150.0 100.0 50.0 1996
1997
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
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10 years of Increasing Land Values A Solid 370% Increase Over the years land as an asset has steadily increased in value. Even when the stock market has plummeted and interest rates have remained low, the value of land has proven to be one of the most robust and resilient
investments. This perhaps isn’t entirely surprising. After all, land lies at the heart of everything. Its one of the fundamental assets of the world.
370% Land
110% S&P 500
109% NASDAQ
56% FTSE All shares
51% FTSE 100 Source: The Valuation OďŹƒce Agency, Financial Times
Yes, the value of land has risen by
%
370
...in just 10 years! www.GreatBritishLandAffair.com
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The Time to Purchase Strategic Land is Now Land in the UK has historically been some of the most valuable in the world. As one of the world’s largest economies, with a relatively limited land mass, demand for land to accommodate UK housing has long exceeded supply. Despite several large scale house building initiatives in the second half of the last century, too few homes were built to meet the demands of a growing population. The failure, over an extended period of time, to build sufficient homes to meet each annual rise in demand has created a ‘structural deficit’. Simple economic theory states that where demand exceeds supply, prices will rise unless supply is increased. A failure to increase supply, coupled with an extremely high population density (England has the highest population density in Europe with 395 people per square kilometre) has caused UK land values to consistently rise above the rate of inflation.
Population growth driving the increase in Land Values Recent research has highlighted population growth as the main driver for the increase in residential land values. The graph below illustrates the direct correlation which exists between land values and population; for every 0.01% increase in population growth, land prices have risen 1%, a 1 in 100 relationship. Residential land has out-performed virtually all other traditional asset classes in the last twenty years, a trend which looks set to continue over the next twenty years if the link between population growth and residential land values continues, particularly in light of the expected increases in population density and growth, which would see the population in the United Kingdom exceed 71 million by 2033. Strategic land in the UK is now a more compelling investment than at any point in history.
Average Land Values vs Projected Population Grown (x 100) 2500%
Population predicted to be 65.6m by 2018
2000%
1500% Population reaches 61.4m June 2009 1000%
500% Correction in Land Values 0% Oct 1993
Oct 1998
Oct 2003
Increase in population x 100
Oct 2008
Oct 2013
Oct 2018
Oct 2023
Oct 2028
Average land increases in value
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How to Purchase Your Land Irrespective of whether you are an experienced property investor, or a first time buyer, we are here to make the buying process as easy as possible. We make purchasing your land simple and secure at all stages. We offer you the opportunity to buy individual plot(s) of land which we consider to have future development potential. We pride ourselves on our commitment to ensuring that our customers are fully informed and
supported throughout the process of buying your plot(s) of land. We make investing in strategic land easy and secure. With prices starting from £13,000, becoming a landowner through Knox couldn’t be easier. Our simple 1-2-3 process means that you could be the freehold title landowner of a parcel of land – or several parcels in just a few weeks.
3 quick steps to owning strategic land:
1
Select your parcel of land from one of the numerous sites available.
2
Pay your 10% reservation fee. We will prepare your legal documents to transfer the land into your name.
3
Pay the remaining balance within 14 days. We will then complete the transfer of the land into your name.
Once the buying process has completed, you will be the freehold owner of your plot(s) of land. You now have complete day-to-day control of your individual plot(s) and you can benefit from the rising values of land and any future development gains.
Bespoke Options for Larger Investors Knox specialises in developing tailor-made land investment projects for investor groups who wish to invest between £1-20 million. These projects typically range from 3-6 years in duration with varying IRRs of between 15% and 35%.
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How to find more online Updated regulary, more and more information is available for customers looking to purchase Freehold Investment Land.
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