If you are tired of all the noise and misinformation about land values and development
economics, this episode of the Inside Property Development podcast is for you. Paul cuts
through the confusion and gives you the real deal.

The Property Development Scorecard

https://millbanklandacademy.scoreapp.com

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The true driver behind development is economics. Starting with being able to
  incentivise the landowner to sell.
• Now that planning takes so long, the initial profit margin has to be relatively high. You
  need a substantial margin of error built into your calculations.
• Prior to 1988 lots of smaller builders built a few houses and sold them. After that,
  planning got too complicated.
• The government still has not understood the underlying problems e.g. Their new
  legislation targets land banking, which is not a thing. Sitting on land which has
  planning permission makes zero sense.
• Over the last few years, building costs have risen by 30%. The fact that this happens.

BEST MOMENTS
“It's not developers being greedy. That's driving this whole process. The thing that's really
driving the whole process is existing use values and meeting and beating landowners’
expectations.”
“Focusing on off-market sites and adding maximum planning value is basically how you de-
risk development as much as you possibly can.”
“The thing that really drives the whole development industry is existing use values and being
able to incentivize landowners to sell.”
“Since 1988 planning got so difficult that they've ended up having to try to buy stuff with
planning because they don't know how to do it themselves.”

ABOUT THE HOST
Paul Higgs is a Chartered Planning and Development Surveyor with 40+ years' experience
in land, planning and development and a 100% success track record in winning planning
consents.
Paul undertook his first refurb project when he was just 17 and then worked his way up from
labouring on building sites to becoming Head of Land for renowned plc housebuilder, Barratt
Developments. He managed to escape the corporate world in 2002 to set up what is now a
multimillion-pound award-winning property development company, Millbank Group.
In 2013 Paul founded the Millbank Land Academy, the UK’s first training company dedicated
to property development; to teach established and aspiring developers the insider secrets
the big housebuilders don’t want you to know!
Paul is also a founding investor and former board director of the industry-leading PropTech
Co, LandTech, and has lectured on Advanced Development Valuations on the MSc Property
Development at London South Bank University.

CONTACT METHOD
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-higgs
Millbank Land Academy: https://www.millbanklandacademy.co.uk
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/paulhiggsofficial
YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@InsidePropertyDevelopment
This Podcast has been brought to you by Disruptive Media. https://disruptivemedia.co.uk/