Brownfield Urban Housing Site

Arcadian Estates was contacted in 2006 by the owner of a five acre factory site in an urban area. He had already instructed an estate agent to sell the site for housing, but the estate agent had failed to progress any prospects. The site was in a marketable area, with no significant planning permission hurdles as it was derelict, but it did have suspected ground contamination problems. Working with the estate agent, Arcadian Estates identified a national housebuilder who had good experience in remediating sites of this nature, and negotiated a sale on a subject to planning permission basis.

The sale completed the following year, with the benefit of a detailed planning consent for 59 homes, and an approved remediation strategy for the ground contamination. Since the landowner was already committed to pay fees to his estate agent, the purchaser covered Arcadian Estates’ costs. This case study illustrates how specialist knowledge is required to sell housing sites. Estate agents and traditional land agents simply do not have the detailed experience or contacts to perform well for landowners disposing of viable building land.