Market looking sweet for property developer

The company’s finance director John Sutcliffe said: “The market place is the best I’ve seen for four or five years – since the turn of the cycle. We’re starting to see a sustained recovery. It’s not stupid, growing too quickly, but market conditions are slowly improving. It’s a better environment. Housebuilders are doing a bit better. I think we’re on the right track.”

The comments were made as the Sheffield-based group announced “encouraging” trading in the first five months of 2013.

Last month the group signed a multi-million pound deal for the landmark former Terry’s chocolate factory site in York.

It then sold half of the 25-acre site to York-based housebuilder David Wilson Homes.

Master planning of the 400,000 sq ft mixed-use development is now underway.

David Wilson Homes said work on a £75m programme to build 270 houses and apartments could begin as early as this summer.

The re-development of the whole site could take as long as a decade with housing centred on the north of the estate.

Mr Sutcliffe said the factory and a derelict listed building could be converted into a hotel or residential redevelopment, but it is too early to say.

“York University or the local authority might say they want to turn it into offices,” he said.

“We’ll identify the most sensible use. Planning permission is largely there. The local authority in York is very supportive of the regeneration. It’s a bit of an eyesore at the moment.”

The group is also working on the 56,000 sq ft redevelopment of a derelict mill in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, into clinical space for use by the NHS, which is due for completion in November.

The development is a 50-50 joint venture between Henry Boot and Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Trust.

The partnership is also promoting a mixed-use development on a separate 23-acre former hospital site in Huddersfield, which is surplus to the Trust’s needs.

In North Yorkshire, the extensive public consultation exercise on a 56-acre mixed-use employment park in Skipton has started following exchange of contracts with Sainsbury’s for a large foodstore development. The group said there is also a good level of tenant interest being shown in the office space.

It said the redevelopment of a 23-acre mixed-use site in Thorne, Doncaster, in partnership with the Royal Bank of Scotland, is proceeding as expected and contracts have been exchanged with Tesco to purchase a site for a large foodstore.

The group said the housing market continues to improve across the country although there are still significant areas, particularly in the north, where the market remains challenging.

Mr Sutcliffe said that Yorkshire is still proving tough in terms of residential.

“Yorkshire is still quiet, but it is getting better. Land prices are still well below what they were at the top of the cycle. They’re 25 to 40 per cent below where they were. However there are still areas such as Harrogate, York and Leeds where land prices are good,” he said.

The group said it is too soon to tell whether the Budget announcements relating to the wider availability of mortgages for first-time buyers will have a significant impact on the land market.

It said the Coalition Government has tried to alleviate mortgage difficulties which should increase confidence among national house builders. It added that the relaxation of planning regulation is having a beneficial impact on the planning system, but the process frequently remains painfully slow and far too complex.