Inland Homes sells Middx site in £95m land-and-build deal

Specialist brownfield land developer and housebuilder Inland Homes has sold its Brooklands College site in Ashford, Middlesex, to housing association A2Dominion, it announced on Thursday.

The AIM-traded firm said the transaction, which would be the biggest land disposal by value undertaken by the group to date, was for a total land-and-build consideration of £94.7m, with the land consideration being £29.7m in cash payable on completion.

Inland Partnerships, the company;s construction arm, would undertake the development phase on behalf of A2Dominion.

Completion of the land sale was expected by the end of the month, while construction work had already commenced on the 10 acre town centre site, situated within the M25 and 10 minutes drive from Heathrow Airport.

Expected to take four years, the development would comprise 357 “high quality”, one-to-five storey homes, 619 square metres of commercial space, and the provision of 442 square metres of educational space, together with public open space, associated car parking and infrastructure upgrades.

As part of the transaction, the 619 square metres of commercial space would be transferred back to Inland for a nominal sum once construction is complete.

“This is a major step forward for Inland,” said CEO Stephen Wicks.

“Not only is it the largest land sale in the group's history, but it also represents a major build contract for Inland Partnerships, which now has a forward order book of approximately £100m.

“These transactions allow us to recognise land profits while also securing self-funding, cash positive construction contracts that provide a balance to open market speculative house building.”

Wicks said Inland currently had 550 homes under construction for private sale, with the latest partnership contract bringing the total number of homes being built for housing associations - a growing customer base for Inland - to more than 500.

“This deal, together with our pipeline and the supportive market backdrop, gives us confidence that within two years the Inland Group will complete the construction of over 1,000 residential homes per annum.”