Property Services
Property development
We will add value to your land and buildings – whether you want to sell them, or simply make them work harder.
Developing your property brings huge financial opportunities – but can be fraught with risk. HCC Property Services has both the experience and expertise to help clients through the process and maximise the full potential of your property.
Our team of specialists can assist with both existing buildings and vacant land by advising on the best use, obtaining planning consents for redevelopment, marketing the property and delivering capital receipts. We can project manage the whole development process, or can advise on specific elements including planning, design, engineering, environmental assessments, traffic and highways, valuation, finance, project management and procurement of public works.
Advice and services tailored to your needs
We can take a project management role or a partnership approach in collaboration with your staff. Alternatively we can provide specific consultancy support to clients or key stakeholders. Our understanding of the public sector built environment ensures that we offer the best value solutions – not only for your organisation, but for the people you serve.
Collaborating with stakeholders
We have extensive experience of collaborating with local stakeholders – whether they are your elected members, your customers or your neighbours – to give a development scheme is the best chance of being supported by the community. This approach can be key to the success of your project – especially where, public consultation is part of the pre-application development process – and we are skilled at approaching this work
Expertise within Property Services
Our in-house experts include development surveyors, planners, urban designers and architects, plus experienced support staff. We’re also able to draw on even wider specialist advice through a number of consultant frameworks.
Whether the property is heavily used and needs refurbishment, or is surplus to requirements and could be generating a valuable capital receipt, we can arrange high quality development that maximises its value and sits comfortably in its surroundings. Our experience covers residential and commercial sites, individual plot sales and long-term major strategic developments.
Our range of services includes
- Project management
- development scoping and feasibility
- market research and analysis
- marketing and disposal strategies
- planning policy interpretation and advice
- development master-planning and urban design
- site promotion and representations
- negotiation of planning permission and section 106 agreements
- valuations and development appraisals
- procurement of infrastructure and public realm
- financial management
- appointment and management of consultants – ensuring compliance with European procurement rules
- public consultations
- Design advice
- Scoping and managing legal issues
- Managing political implications and expectations of development
Project delivery
Property development expertise was called in recently to a school in a deprived area with falling class sizes, where a scoping exercise indicated that disposing of one part of the school and extending and refurbishing the remainder would give the school community the best value from their buildings.
This project illustrates the wide range of activities the team can undertake on your school’s behalf – and the kind of results they can achieve.
The project progressed as follows
Removal of asbestos and demolition of the redundant building.
Valuation advice to identify levels of reinvestment capital available for the school extension.
Management of consultant teams and organising site, landscape, and environmental surveys together with reports on highways, traffic, drainage and utilities.
Preparation of a development brief and design of the housing layout for the outline planning application, and provision of survey details to the planning authority.
Negotiation of a Section 106 agreement with the planning authority. The team helped to reduce the school’s section 106 contribution, by demonstrating that the new school extension would provide community facilities which maximised value for both the pupils and members of the public.
Preparation of a marketing and development brief for the vacant site, and marketing of the site on a design offer” basis whereby the scheme is developed through collaboration between the selected developer, the school and the planning authority.
The refurbished school opened on time, to excellent feedback from children and parents, and numbers are now once again on the rise.
The sale of the redundant site has helped to fund the refurbishment.
Merton Rise 
2 MB
A multifaceted business, encompassing activities that range from the renovation and release of existing buildings to the purchase of raw land and the sale of improved parcels to others.
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