In this episode of the Inside Property Podcast, Paul talks about developing your ability to get deals done. Explaining how to get things to stack up so that you and anyone else involved in the deal can make enough profit to be able to repeat the process and continue to create the buildings and homes the UK so desperately needs. The advice he shares in this episode is applicable whether you are developing sites yourself or adding value then selling them on.

He lists out the main challenges you need to overcome and shares a simple way for you to learn how to do it.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The first challenge is finding opportunities with minimal competition.

• Putting together profitable development deals is a skill set that can be learned.

• Paul has analysed all of his successful deals and those of other developers he knows and developed a step-by-step process that anyone can use to do the same.

• Properly assessing the potential of a site before you buy is an essential skill.

• The most important skill is being able to maximise the value of a piece of land. When you can do this, you can create no-brainer deals that are hard for landowners to resist.

• Being able to get a project through planning and knowing how to source funding are also essential.

• Understanding the motivations and goals of the landowner will help you put together a tempting deal.

BEST MOMENTS

“Quickly assessing the potential without wasting a whole load of time and money is really important.”

“The bigger the overall value pie you create, the better.”

“You need to have your exit in mind before you even start, because that will influence what you do in the early stages.”

“If you can't get them (the landowners) on board, you're never going to get a deal done.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

£1 Option Agreements episode - https://www.ivoox.com/1-option-agreements-audios-mp3_rf_136544437_1.html

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

Full episode on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8a7dm5yPqag

Today, Paul once again talks to David Hughes of Fuse Architects. This time they discuss temporary planning permission for modular housing units. David explains how using this approach would enable families who are often living together in a tiny B&B room to be properly housed in just 6 months. He also talks about why it makes financial sense for councils to use this method to increase housing stock in their area.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• In the UK, 117,000 households are living in temporary accommodation.

• London councils spend £114m a month on stop-gap accommodation.

• A significant % of people are housed in sub-standard accommodation e.g., hotel rooms of just 16.5 sq. meters, at a time when you can´t build a one-bed flat of less than 50 sq. meters.

• Building social housing currently takes 4 to 5 years.

• If the houses are only temporary, many of the costly and time-consuming reports that are currently needed would not be necessary.

• High building material inflation means that projects that were viable when plans were drawn up, become impossible to build because of finances.

• Sites that are going to be sitting empty for years, e.g. stalled sites, can easily have modular housing put on them.

• Modular housing can be leased to councils and are available for use in just 6 months.

• Modular housing can be craned away and used elsewhere.

• Using temporary planning permission can turn a site that is currently not financially viable into homes and generate income for the owner.

BEST MOMENTS

“Nationwide, there´s 117,000 households in temporary accommodation.”

“Greenwich spent £8.8 million last year on Travelodge.”

“So huge amount of reports. I read the other day that there was a planning report done on the speed of a cricket ball.”

“There is no advantage to getting planning permission for 100% affordable housing.”

“Because it is temporary planning permission, the hope is it will go through much quicker.”

“When local authorities want to make stuff happen, it happens.”

GUEST RESOURCES

https://www.fusearchitects.co.uk

Previous Dave Hughes episode -https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/dave-hughes-the-developers-architect-design-grounded/id1750859336?i=1000676721440

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

Full episode on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zK8EUKolqqo

In this episode, Paul explains exactly how he has achieved and is maintaining a 100% track record of winning planning approval over the past 40 years. He shares how he learned to do this, how you can do the same and how to keep your knowledge current to further reduce the risk of refusal.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• If at first you do not succeed, appeal. Paul has done this many times and has never lost an appeal.

• Take your time when putting together your plans. You need to do as much as you can to avoid getting a refusal on a site. Sometimes this can blight a site.

• Educate yourself about planning. Paul did this partly by going to planning meetings and observing what went on out in the real world. Book learning only gets you so far.

• Paul recommends qualifying as a Chartered Planning and Development surveyor like he did. He explains why.

• Never assume you know everything. That is why Paul still works with planning consultants. But at the same time, he also double-checks everything himself.

• Look at every little thing and think about how it applies to your site. That means keeping up with regulations, monitoring which planning applications are approved and which are denied and understanding why.

• Be all over all of the details. Do the planner's job for them to make it easier for them to approve you than it is for them to refuse you.

BEST MOMENTS

“Having a planning strategy before you even start is a big part of how I've got a 100% planning permission track record.”

“You don't really want refusals on your sites …. sites with refusals can sometimes get a bit blighted.”

“A lot of those applications I've had to win at appeal.”

“Be super detailed. Reverse engineer everything.”

“Understand all of the things that might come up before they come up and address them at the application and design stage.”

“You do need to learn and understand quite a lot of this stuff well, as much of it as possible yourself, in order to spot the angles, the opportunities and the pitfalls at an early stage.”

EPISODE RESOURCES

Scorecard - https://scorecard.millbanklandacademy.co.uk

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/innovative-developments-that-provide-both-profit-and/id1750859336?i=1000672292005

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