RICS chartered · Planning & development
The development-side view, on your side of the table.
Fifteen years working with the UK’s largest housebuilders and land promoters. Independent advice for landowners selling — and for developers buying — from small consented sites to large strategic land.
Placeholder photograph — replace before launch. Farmland, Kingsclere, Hampshire by Oswald Bertram, cropped, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Geograph.
Figures relate to sites advised on in the course of a career with national developers, promoters and consultancies. Individual transactions are confidential and case studies are anonymised.
Two sides of the same deal
Getting the most from land you already own
Most landowners deal with development land once. The buyer on the other side does it fifty times a year. That asymmetry is where value quietly leaks — in the structure, the price mechanism, the deductions and the longstop dates, not usually in the headline number.
- Sale of consented and allocated sites
- Strategic land — promotion, option and hybrid agreements
- Reviewing terms a developer or promoter has already offered
- Overage, clawback and retained-land protection
Finding and landing sites that actually work
Having sat inside land teams, the brief is familiar: the right sites, appraised honestly, with the planning risk understood before board approval rather than after. Retained search, off-market introductions and acquisition support that ends at completion, not at heads of terms.
- Retained site search against a defined land brief
- Off-market and pre-allocation introductions
- Development appraisal, viability and bid support
- Planning strategy, risk and programme review
Who you would be dealing with
Michael Donohoe
MRICS · Chartered planning & development surveyor
“This might be your only land deal. It’s been my bread and butter for fifteen years — from the other side of the table. I decided to stop using that experience to help developers pay less, and start using it to help get landowners paid more. Everyone fixates on the price; what actually decides what you keep is the structure underneath it, and that’s where I spend my time.”
What you can expect
- The initial appraisal is free and carries no obligation on either side.
- No tie-in. You are not signing anything to find out what your land is worth.
- We act for one party on any site. Any potential conflict is declared before an engagement begins.
- Written terms before any paid work starts — scope and fee agreed in advance, never after.
- Nothing is shared without your instruction. Details of your land do not go to any developer or promoter unless you say so, in writing.
- If there is nothing there, we will tell you. That is a legitimate answer and it costs you nothing to hear it.
What we do
Six things, done properly, by one chartered surveyor.
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01
Land sales — consented sites
Sites with permission, allocated sites and small parcels brought to market with genuine competitive tension. Marketing pack, buyer shortlist, informal tender where it suits, and management of the offer through to unconditional completion.
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02
Strategic land & promotion
Land without permission, assessed honestly against the local plan position, the housing land supply and the realistic route to allocation. Selection of promoter or developer partner, and negotiation of the agreement that follows.
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03
Deal structuring & agreement advice
Option, promotion, conditional contract, hybrid or unconditional sale. Which one fits, and then the detail inside it: price mechanism, cost caps and deductibility, minimum prices, longstop dates, planning triggers and dispute resolution.
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04
Development appraisal & viability
Residual appraisals built the way a housebuilder’s land team builds them, so you can see what a buyer can actually pay — and where their assumptions on values, build costs, abnormals and Section 106 are doing the work.
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05
Planning strategy & risk
What consent is realistically achievable, on what timescale, and what could stop it. Local plan and allocation strategy, pre-application positioning, and an honest read on the risks that get priced into offers.
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06
Site search & acquisition
Retained search for housebuilders, promoters and investors against a defined land brief — sourcing, appraising, approaching landowners, and running the acquisition through to exchange and completion.
The decision that matters most
Option, promotion, conditional or outright sale?
This single choice usually moves more money than the price you negotiate afterwards. It determines who pays for planning, who controls it, when you get paid, how much you keep — and how long your land is tied up if it all goes quiet.
We built a short comparison that lays the five main routes side by side, with a guided tool that narrows them down for your circumstances. It is general information, not advice — but it will tell you which conversations to have.
How it works
From first look to completion.
Most engagements start with an appraisal and no commitment on either side. If there is nothing there, we will tell you that too.
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Appraisal
A confidential review of the land, the planning context and what development potential is realistically there. Free, and without obligation.
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Strategy
Decide the route — sell now, sell conditionally, grant an option, promote, or wait for the plan to move. The right answer depends as much on your circumstances as on the site.
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Preparation
Assemble what a buyer will need before they will pay properly for it: title and access position, constraints, technical baseline, and a defensible planning case.
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Market
Approach the right buyers rather than the first one through the door, and create competition. Offers compared on structure and deliverability, not just headline price.
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Delivery
Heads of terms, solicitors, planning triggers and payment milestones — managed through to completion. This is where most land deals are won or lost.
Where we work
A core patch we know street by street — and nationally for strategic land.
Local plan positions, housing land supply and committee behaviour vary enormously between authorities, and that local knowledge is worth real money on a consented site. For strategic land, where the work is about promoter selection and agreement structure rather than local nuance, we act nationally.
- Norfolk
- Suffolk
- Wiltshire
- Herefordshire
Strategic land instructions considered anywhere in England and Wales.
Insights
Notes on land, planning and value.
What is your land actually worth?
Why the £-per-acre figure a neighbour quotes you is almost never the number, and how a housebuilder really arrives at a bid.
Read[Second article — suggested: local plan timetables and what they mean for your land]
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Read[Third article — suggested: five clauses that cost landowners the most]
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Tell us about your land.
A confidential, no-obligation appraisal of what your land could be worth, what consent it might realistically achieve, and which route to market fits your circumstances. No fee, no tie-in.