By comparison, the outer boroughs of south west London saw much fewer land transactions, and are expected to deliver a much smaller pipeline over the next five years. Land transactions in Richmond, Sutton and Kingston consisted of just 29 sites (with an estimated 1,650 new homes).

Developers have been focusing on these higher value boroughs due to the availability of large sites in areas such as Nine Elms and White City. They have also been driven by a strong sales market and high demand for housing.

The result of this land buying activity is that there are clusters of high supply, likely to be delivered over the next five years. Hammersmith & Fulham, Wandsworth and Lambeth are expected to deliver 20,500 new homes over this period.

click on image below to enlarge

^{Source: Savills Research and Molior}

How are these homes being delivered?

Many of these homes are coming forward on large scale sites of over 500 units such as at Capital and Counties’ Earls Court scheme, Battersea Power Station and various sites in White City such as the redevelopment of the BBC Television Centre and Berkeley’s M&S site.

In the central boroughs where riverside development is popular and land is particularly expensive, large scale schemes are tall and dense. Examples include: the 42 storey South Bank Tower and the 59 storey One Nine Elms.

Smaller sites

Beyond the big schemes, the land market for smaller sites of fewer than 250 homes is still active and forms a significant part of total housing delivery in south west London. Lower value outer London boroughs have a greater proportion of smaller sites.

This activity on smaller sites highlights the opportunities that exist for more niche players, many of whom are UK developers, to capitalise on the smaller sites that bigger players are not as interested in. Focusing on these opportunities allows developers to target UK demand for homes in this part of London.

The most active developers in this area (by number of sites in the five year delivery period) are Berkeley Group and London Square, but of the 146 developers operating in this area, 109 developers have just one site, demonstrating the niche nature of development.

Type and nationality of land buyers

Buyers of land are typically those wishing to develop the land themselves. Over the past two years, approximately 80% (by value) of all land traded has ended up in the hands of a developer, with a further 5% bought by Registered Providers. The remainder of all known land transactions involved financial services companies, hotels, pension funds or investment vehicles. This trend is similar in south west London and the rest of London. However, the nationality of these developers does vary across London.

The south west of London has seen a similar proportion of international developers buying land to the rest of London over the past two years, approximately one quarter by value. However the profile of those developers is different. The majority of overseas developers buying sites in the south west are from China and Pacific Asia whilst the rest of London sees more developers from India and Western Europe buying sites. The significant sites sold to overseas developers in the South West area over the past two years include:

• Battersea Power Station – Battersea Power Station Development Company
• Ram Brewery – Greenland (Wandsworth)
• One Nine Elms – Dalian Wanda (all three of these in Wandsworth)
• Empire House – Lend Lease (Hounslow)
• 408 Chiswick High Road – Lend Lease (Chiswick)
• Saint John Bosco College – Lend Lease (Putney)
• Teddington Studios – City Developments

^{Source: Savills Research and Molior}

Accelerating delivery of homes for London on brownfield sites

In November 2014, Berkeley Homes and National Grid signed a £700 million joint venture, called St William, to develop mixed use sites with up to 14,000 homes on redundant gas holder sites across the capital over the next 15 years. This initiative will accelerate the delivery of homes on disused industrial land, which is good news for London.

Six of the JV’s first projects in London have been identified, and two are in south west London: Fulham Gas Works and Battersea Gas Holders, the more centrally located of the sites identified. The Fulham site is pre planning but opinion has been sought, while the Battersea site has just had an application submitted, totalling potential for 2,600 homes across the two sites. Outside of this joint venture, St James and National Grid are working together on a site in lower value Southall, with a master consent for a mixed use scheme including 3,475 homes.