Masterdeveloper Urban&Civic has taken options on two strategic sites in Cambridge with the capacity for more than 10,000 homes in the past two weeks.
The company has reached agreement over 2,100 acres at an “uber strategic” Tempsford site with capacity for more than 7,000 homes.
The land has been identified as a prospective development point, not only easily accessible from Cambridge and Milton Keynes, but also from the upgraded A14 and the preferred route for a new East West Rail.
Chief executive Nigel Hugill said: “It is absolutely where you would put a new settlement. It is really well located, but in a semi-rural location.”
Urban&Civic has also entered an option on a second site with capacity for 3,000 homes within commuting distance of Cambridge. It is negotiating over additional land to increase this to 5,000 homes.
The masterdeveloper owns strategic sites with capacity for 50,000 homes, it said in results for the six months to 31 March.
It reported EPRA NAV of £487.8m, down 1.9% year-on-year, and EPRA NNNAV per share down 1.3% at 318.3p.
Hugill said that although surveyors were nervous post-coronavirus, a widespread change in social behaviours “is working in our favour, rather than against us”.
“The fascinating thing for us is the assumption that people will continue to commute, but they might not go into the office five days a week,” he said. “It’s really hard to know how the economic environment plays out over the next 12 months, we absolutely are not sanguine about that. But our housebuilders on site are doing fine. We’ve signed four new land sales since March.”
Urban&Civic expects to boost the proportion of build-to-rent at its Waterbeach scheme, which was previously expected to make up at least half of the development, in line with anticipated rental demand.
“Of course, you are going to see a level of demand for renting, in the current environment. We’re going to increase that substantially,” Hugill said.
Hugill is still courting prospective investors and noted international demand for low-rise apartments and housing. “We have 20 site visits this week – a combination of institutional investors, BTR operators and housebuilders.”
Early development of rental homes chimes with Urban&Civic’s focus on providing civic facilities, which Hugill said will be more of a focus post-pandemic. It also opens the masterdeveloper up to speedier modular construction techniques that are less appealing to housebuilders.
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