We have just completed our biggest ever deal to date after selling a site spanning more than 100 acres off Watery Lane, in Curborough, Lichfield to Redrow Homes. The site has planning permission for up to 750 homes and a gross development value in excess of £240 million.
We acted on behalf of the two landowners, who are longstanding clients of the firm, on the sale of the site, working in conjunction with promoters IM Land who achieved planning permission. IM Land was appointed in 2014 and has worked to ensure the site was designated for development in the Lichfield District Council Local Plan before securing outline planning permission in 2019. We then marketed the site with its joint agents, receiving a strong level of interest from housebuilders, and the sale recently completed to Redrow Homes.
The scheme will feature a mix of two-bedroom to five-bedroom homes, including 31 per cent affordable housing, as well as a new primary school and community centre and Air Training Corps building.
Curborough Hall Farm Countryside Centre, featuring independent cafes and shops, which is located on the site will also be retained and enhanced as part of the plans. Redrow Homes is now progressing a reserved matters planning application – finalising the layout and features of the development as well as the exact number of houses – with work expected to begin on the site later this year and the first show home anticipated to be open in 2023.
Ben Marshalsay, Head of Development based at our Ashby office said: “We are extremely pleased to complete a deal with Redrow Homes. It is the largest transaction that Fisher German has to date acted on and is one of the largest deals of this kind completed in the Midlands during the 2021/22 financial year. It has been a truly collaborative effort between all consultants, the landowners, and IM Land to both ensure the site was allocated for housing in the local plan and overcome planning and technical issues.
It will be an extremely positive development for Lichfield which will bring hundreds of new homes to the area and form part of a large-scale urban extension. We are very pleased with the values achieved. It was a very keenly contested deal which demonstrates the strength of the market in a post Covid world. It was the landowners who specifically selected Redrow Homes due to the high quality of houses produced by the company, and we now look forward to seeing the development come to fruition.”
