land acquisition & planning

Siam Consultancy & Investments are always looking for new plots of development land on the following basis:

• Land with planning consents that we can build new homes or mixed use developments on
   
• Land which could benefit from planning in order to maximise its value, where the land owner requires help (both financial and practical) to achieve planning and with the land sales process
   
• Land being sold on an 'option to purchase' basis, or where a 'promoter agreement' would be appropriate subject to planning being achieved
   
• Land that may have future potential for planning where the owner wants to sell on an unconditional basis

Should you wish to discuss a development site opportunity, please do not hesitate to get in touch with us on a confidential basis. 

What is an Option Agreement?

With an Option Agreement, the buyer has the ‘option’ to buy the property subject to certain conditions being fulfilled. For example, gaining planning consent for a certain number of dwellings. Once the planning permission has been granted or a condition has been fulfilled the buyer then has the right to serve a notice upon the seller requiring the seller to sell the site to the buyer. This would be within a time specified in the option agreement and at either an agreed price or at market value. Examples of situations in which option agreements may be used are:

• Where developers want to secure an option agreement before paying out for planning permissions.
• ​​​Where land is owned by different owners there may be uncertainty as to whether they will all sell. In this situation the developer may want to have option agreements with all of them before buying.

Options are normally registered against the title of the property at the Land Registry as a notice so any other parties can see that the developer/buyer has an interest in the land.

What is a Promoter Agreement?

In recent years, planning promotion agreements - also known as land promotion agreements - have become increasingly popular with both land owners and developers as an alternative to option agreements. 

Under a typical planning promotion agreement, a developer agrees to promote the landowner's property for development - to apply for and use reasonable endeavours to obtain planning permission and, having secured planning permission, to market the property for sale in the open market.

In return for providing these services, the developer will receive a fee or a proportion of the net sale proceeds after various costs, such as planning costs and land costs, have been deducted and reimbursed to the developer.