To gain a deeper understanding of the housebuilding industry, its complexities and challenges, we're exploring the working lives of individuals in various roles that play an intrinsic part in the sector.

In this article, James Lawson, a legal director in our Residential team, sat down with a land agent in private practise to get an insight into their role, and their perspective on the challenges and opportunities they see for the sector.

We then interviewed James to get his take on these issues – check out the video below.

1. What's on your desk?

"My client base is principally private land owners, many having substantial estates, who are selling on to developers. I'm currently dealing with a range of contracts, options and promotion agreements with major housebuilders. I also advise on estate management matters for some clients, but the main focus has been and remains deals with developers.

"On some deals we are negotiating Heads of Terms, whilst other deals are with clients' lawyers who I am working with to get the deals across the line. I tend to find a few of the housebuilders have particular visibility in our region and I've developed a good working relationship with them - understanding where each other are coming from on deals really helps."

This feedback illustrates land agents' critical role on deals. They will have a range of clients, from one-off referrals to (as is the case here) longstanding clients with whom they have close working relationships and work with hand in hand to maximize the value of landholdings. The range of deals with housebuilders reflects what we'd expect but it's worth remembering that every deal is bespoke, each with its own challenges and nuances.

The land agents' role of course does not end at Heads of Terms, it's also about working with the clients' lawyers to deliver the deal. This aspect can differ in scope but often landowner clients are reliant on their agents to guide them on instructions to lawyers, to be on hand to settle key commercial points that arise in the detailed negotiations and to oversee delivery of post completion matters by the housebuilders such as infrastructure obligations and overage. As is evident from the feedback, having a good working relationship with housebuilders and each party understanding the other party's drivers and priorities, are really beneficial to getting deals done.

2. What is keeping you awake at night?

"Over the past six months or so the market did slow somewhat. Some of this was down to the wider economic picture, but the uncertainty over planning outcomes and proposed changes in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) have also contributed. The impact of the proposed changes to the NPPF on greenbelt development is a concern for developers - it's halting quite a lot of local plans at the moment.

"In addition, new issues such as biodiversity net gain and increased sustainability standards are added challenges to factor into deals. Developers have been reassessing deals, and we have seen a few fall through, but more usually developers are just being more cautious, particularly on timelines associated with planning matters and build costs. That said, there's housing demand out there that needs to be met and this underlying fundamental means that many landowners will be prepared to wait and do a better deal in the future if they can't get the deal they want at the moment. My view is things will settle down and we'll start to see positive signs in line with the wider economic picture."

This reflects trends on deals that we have been seeing over recent months. There has been an element of market uncertainty leading to a more cautious approach on the part of developers to deals. Coupled with that, uncertainty on planning outcomes continues to be a frustration. The planning system is expensive and under resourced, with additional uncertainty created by proposed changes to the NPPF and the industry adjusting to a range of relatively new sustainability requirements.

Like our land agent, we have seen a few deals falls through, but in general they are getting done with, on occasions, the parties having to exercise some flexibility through the negotiations to take into account short term market conditions. As our land agent comments there is underlying market demand for new housing, so as always the industry will work through the current challenges and we will continue to look for creative and pragmatic solutions to balance parties' interests and make deals happen.

3) What is next in the housing sector?

"For my landowner client base, the big opportunities are geared around allocation of land for larger residential development. At the moment the government's planning agenda seems to be making this more difficult, but I think for my clients the big opportunity will need to be by way of policy driven changes that support required housing delivery in the green belt where this can be sustainably provided."

This is a frustration shared by many in the housing industry and it may well take a general election to bring about a shift in policy to facilitate this. In the meantime we are seeing increased momentum on the delivery of newer housing products such as Build to Rent, modular housing, senior living models and the repurposing of obsolete retail/office space into residential use, which clients are focussing on as growth areas and refining as products. Looking ahead these are going to provide a range of opportunities which will expand housing choices available to those looking to buy or rent.

4) What is the next big opportunity?

"For my landowner client base, the big opportunities are geared around allocation of land for larger residential development. At the moment the government's planning agenda seems to be making this more difficult, but I think for my clients the big opportunity will need to be by way policy driven changes that support required housing delivery in the green belt where this can be sustainably provided."

This is a frustration shared by many in the housing industry and it may well take a general election to bring about a shift in policy to facilitate this. In the meantime we are seeing increased momentum on the delivery of newer housing products such as Build to Rent, modular housing, senior living models and the repurposing of obsolete retail/office space into residential use, which clients are focussing on as growth areas and refining as products. Looking ahead these are going to provide a range of opportunities which will expand housing choices available to those looking to buy or rent.

5) What is it about the job that you love?

"I like that my role includes long-term projects, often over a number of years. You definitely build relationships with people and you get to know the clients very well along with their professional teams.

"Also there's the buzz of doing a deal. I tend to work on large scale land disposals - these can take time to put together and complete, so when it eventually goes through it's a great feeling.

"All in all it's an interesting job. It's something that you can talk about with people and I think people are generally interested in property, everybody's certainly got an opinion on it!"

These are sentiments we can really identify with. Developing good relationships with clients, their professional teams and indeed the other side makes the job so enjoyable and crucially gets the best outcomes on what are often complex projects with many moving parts. We work on housing delivery projects across the country and for everyone involved there is a real sense of pride and achievement as these schemes are developed out providing places to live and creating communities.

This video was filmed on 3 March 2023.

Find out more about the issues and opportunities in the Living sector by exploring our full selection of resources.