Realising The Full Potential Of Your Land Despite Development Challenges By AJ Shome

For this episode, Paul is joined by AJ Shome director of Founthill Land Planning and Development, a highly successful SME property developer who, in 2013, was one of Paul´s first mentees. They sit down to discuss the trials and tribulations they and others face getting planning permission and getting things built. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

•    The time it takes to get a deal done is causing major issues for developers.                    Including forcing them to use less than ideal financing options.
•    Developers need to be thick-skinned, innovative and persistent.
•    Some of the restrictions developers face, are nonsensical e.g. AJ was asked to              spend £100k to build a new access road to 4 homes that were already raised                above flood risk levels.
•    Consultees often say no to things they could pass largely because of a lack of              experience.
•    Constantly changing legislation leaves developers wasting time trying to adapt.
•    The new NPPF changes, the grey belt, will open up a lot of opportunities. But the          level of local resistance to such developments is still crazy high.
•    Planning is too much of a game of cat and mouse, which wastes everyone´s time         and money. Money that could be spent making the development better.
•    GDV levels have dropped by nearly half.

BEST MOMENTS
“From that time onwards, I’ve pretty much done the Paul Higgs model in terms of land planning and development.”
“Every developer seems to be in a position where they're having to look at exit finance.”
“Now, so often, it's “computer says no”.”
“I've just had to submit three different variants of class Q in order to get this fallback.”
“We sound very doom and gloom, but our success record is extremely high.”

EPISODE RESOURCES
https://www.founthill.com

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