New research has been carried out that shows the release of publically owned brownfield lands will be the best opportunity to for development in light of the Government White paper for property developers. Amicus Property Finance is a company that specialises in short term property lending, and has discovered that a number of developers think that increasing the availability of brownfield sites is going to be the best option for developers in today’s market.
Developers seem to have backed the white paper from the Government that will reduce the approval time allowed for planning applications by the local authority. 69% of developers asked as part of the Amicus research say that increasing the amount of brownfield space available for development will be a good opportunity for developers. 49% of developers have said that the reduction of the time available to local authorities to look at planning applications, from three to two years, will help developers. 45% thought that carrying on the Help to Buy Scheme will be good for developers and 41% thought a greater focus on housing in the affordable sector will help the property market.
Even though developers showed their support for the white paper, it seems that they are more skeptical about the target set by the Government to build one million homes by 2020. According to the research by Amicus Property Finance, 21% of developers thought that the target is realistic.
Amicus has experienced a successful start to the year after being able to provide more than £500 million worth of short term property loans last year. The company managed to expand their customer base to brokers and professional landlords as well as developers that were looking for finance for both residential and commercial real estate assets.
Investment will be beneficial for the development sector; however it is thought that developers would like to see a change to the tax laws, as it is thought to be one of the largest problems when trying to tackle the housing crisis. This includes the recent increase to stamp duty for landlords.
