Brownfield sites set to be revived for housing with £60m funding injection

Considering buying or selling a property this year? What pricing strategy is realistic in a hard property market? Deborah Richards, Managing Partner of award-winning Sales and Lettings agent, Maddisons Residential, gives some insight into the shifting expectations of the buyer and seller over the past three years, and explains it’s not all doom and gloom.

When a market shifts, it can do so slowly or quickly. Over the past three years (yes, it is now three years since Coronavirus hit our headlines), we have seen two very fast market shifts: swinging from a hard buyers’ market to a booming sellers’ market in the summer of 2020, and then back to a buyers’ market in the autumn of 2022. And whenever a market changes, it always takes time for buyers’ and sellers’ price expectations to become aligned. Throughout the recent booming sellers’ market, we saw buyers bidding high and with conviction to secure their dream property.

Now, we see buyers opening the negotiations with low offers, often 10% below asking price – having assessed the negative media commentary, taking predictions as fact, and believing that they can pick up a bargain. Then, when their opening bids are rejected, further negotiation hopefully sees offers settling below, but closer, to the asking price.

Currently, more offers than normal are not being accepted, due to a mismatch between buyer and seller expectations. Some sellers are under the illusion that they will enjoy the boom market of the past two and a half years, and although they will undoubtedly be aware of rising mortgage rates and the cost-of-living crisis, they sadly do not believe this will affect their property sale. Some buyers, to whom a property purchase represents so much more than an investment to make money, think they will be able to capitalise on a more subdued market.

The reality is that most people move home because they need to, and these needs will continue to keep the property wheels turning. It is those sellers and buyers who are more realistic on their property pricing who will make the move and enjoy how their new home meets their changing needs for many years to come.

AROUND 5,800 new homes are to be built on brownfield sites regenerated with the help of £60million in Government funding from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)

Councils across England are able to bid for a share of the pot to revive disused urban areas and make room for new dwellings, DLUHC announced last Wednesday, January 25.

The money – which is the second tranche from the £180million Brownfield Land Release Fund 2 – will go towards building thousands of new homes by March 2027 and could create about 18,000 jobs in the housing and construction sector.

Communities

It is part of the Government’s plan to develop brownfield land while protecting the green belt.

Housing minister Lucy Frazer said: “We want to turn neglected areas into thriving new communities, as part of our mission to level up the country.

“To do this we must prioritise brownfield land to deliver new homes for people, in the right places.

“The £60million fund we are opening today provides another fantastic opportunity for councils to drive regeneration in their towns and cities – and help more young families on to the housing ladder.”

Councils are able to apply until the end of March, with successful projects announced over the summer.

A £35million slice of the overall fund was released to 41 councils last November, supporting 59 regeneration projects from Exeter to Sunderland, including the building of 29 new homes on the site of a former bingo hall in Chorley, Lancashire.

The remaining funding will be made available to councils over the next two years, the DLUHC said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has been criticised for watering down the target of building 300,000 homes a year in England – a goal set out in the 2019 Conservative manifesto – in the middle of a housing crisis.

Meet the expert:

Deborah