Stuart Eustace, who previously worked for Argent, will join New Homes sales, while Will Jordan has been hired to work in the Land division. Both bring great experience of the local market, and will offer developer clients and prospective home buyers the very best advice.
Will joins Knight Frank from Jones Lang Lasalle in Birmingham, where he was running a land agency portfolio of sites across the Midlands; he will be focusing on the renewed appetite from housebuilders to acquire and develop, driven in part by Help to Buy.
Stuart has worked for developers both in the region and overseas. He will specialise in new city-centre schemes across Central England, including conversions from office buildings to residential.
Recent Knight Frank and Glenigan data shows that the West Midlands saw a 57% jump in detailed planning permissions sought for private units in 50+ home schemes between May and August this year, compared to the same period last year. Knight Frank’s Birmingham office has sold over £46.5 million worth of apartments and over £115 million’s worth of land for new housing.
This growth trend has been replicated by Knight Frank’s specialist Residential Investment & Development Valuation team in Birmingham. The three-man team, headed by Andrew Davis, provide specialist loan security, insolvency, portfolio, acquisition and company valuations on both residential land and property. Since the turn of the year they have advised upon more than £250 million’s worth of assets.
Andrew comments that:
“The increasing demand for valuations over the last 12 months is due to increased transactional activity in the residential sector and signs of renewed confidence from the banking sector.”
Mark Evans, Head of Knight Frank Residential Development Birmingham, says the team’s growth highlights the positivity in the market:
“’Green shoots’ is perhaps an overused term, but it’s what we are definitely now seeing in the Central regions, as developers look to capitalise on the increased confidence from the public in the economy and the market, with schemes with incentives such as Help to Buy in place selling fast to first-time buyers and starter families. The central regional cities are once more coming back onto housebuilders’ radars and we are seeing the right sites – those near infrastructure or education providers – receiving a lot of interest.”
