Asking for a friend...

A pal of mine is almost ready to market the four new builds on a quarter acre site he has been developing. It's looking like the acre of land around the site (5 plots) might be going to another developer looking to do pretty much the same thing, demolish and rebuild. Not seen any plans yet so no idea what might be going up. He's not too happy. Any advice?

 

Is it too late to put in a bid for the land or would it stretch your friend's finances?
Is there any way they might be able to work together?

A new building site would not go down well with people looking to buy your friends new builds. Very tricky situation and no easy answer I am afraid.

 

Thanks. He's small time, pretty stretched and stressed. I think he would struggle to raise the capital, tbh. Turns out that some of the plot owners said they'd smoke him when he went ahead. He wasn't too bothered at the time. Guessing this might be what they had in mind. Bit of a pickle really.

 

Probably a case of getting the houses on the market asap and securing his cash. However, if he was to struggle because of the building site next door, he could always fight fire with fire. Why not approach a housing association to see if they would be interested in buying/renting the properties

He might have to offer a discount but I dont think a housing association would be overly concerned about the building site next door.

 

How did he get on - did he secure buyers on his plots?

 

The UK is roughly 300k new builds behind demand so assuming they are in the "correct" area, they should surely sell in time?

I appreciate it might be a bit of a race to the bottom but I would guess there is a lot of headroom between the build cost and even a discounted sale of houses?

 

Competition is competition - as longs its finished well - it will sell!! there is always a demand - price sensibly and you will have people who will want to buy!

 

I suppose on the flip side, if your properties are a better spec than the others then you will stand out and probably get more interest. Also, once interest starts it is likely to continue as people like to live in a blossoming community and not be one of a few familes on a new estate. I would not be overly concerned.