Senior Consultant
James is a chartered surveyor with over 25 years experience of residential development throughout southern England. He lives in Teddington, south-west London.
James has worked in land acquisition with a number of house building companies, from the volume market to more bespoke styles and, more recently, in the niche retirement market.
From his senior roles within these companies, James has had to ensure that developments conform to a brief in terms of the market sector, the location, the size and the programme of delivery. To achieve this, he has been instrumental in developing reporting methods to clearly demonstrate how an individual project complies with the company’s requirements.
James is now working mainly in the area of development viability. This would typically involve residential sites of varying sizes, possibly including an element of commercial use.
James has developed a number of core skills that would be central to the completion of a viability study:
- Considering the viability of a site against alternative uses.
- Using planning policy and market conditions to understand realistic alternative uses.
- Understanding both the level of development arising from nearby sites and their programmes.
- Researching the market from both estate agents and the performance of new developments.
- Using parameters such as achieved prices and rates of sale to gauge the level of activity in the market and recommend appropriate price levels for the site.
- Understanding both planning and physical constraints that will impact on viability.
- Identifying cost constraints that might impact on viability.
- Working with different valuation toolkits.
- Understanding the mechanics of different valuation toolkits.
- Working with both comparable evidence of land transactions and residual land values.
James brings his experience of the private sector and the open market to the work of the consultancy.
