There has been no shortage of commentary about how difficult the land market has become.
Rising costs, cautious developers, stretched planning departments, viability challenges — all of it real, all of it relevant. But there is a part of the current market that sometimes gets lost in that conversation.
Well-priced sites, with pragmatic owners, are selling.
Not every site. Not easily. But they are selling — and in some cases moving relatively quickly.
What the Market Is Actually Telling Us
Developer appetite has not disappeared. The demand for consented land, and land with a credible route to consent, remains. What has changed is how selective buyers have become.
The days of developers stretching on price to secure sites regardless of the numbers are largely gone. Land is being valued more carefully. Residual appraisals are being run with tighter margins. Build cost assumptions are more conservative. And offers are reflecting all of that.
For landowners who understand this — and who price their land in line with where the market genuinely sits today — transactions are happening.
For those holding out for a valuation anchored in a different market, the phone is quieter than it used to be.
The market hasn’t stopped. It has become more discerning. And the gap between
realistic pricing and wishful pricing has never been more visible.
What Pragmatic Looks Like in Practice
At Aston Mead, we are seeing a clear pattern among the transactions that are completing.
The owners involved are not necessarily selling cheaply. But they are engaging with the market on its own terms. They are willing to consider conditional deals, option arrangements and deferred payments that share risk more fairly between seller and buyer. They understand that a developer taking a site through planning in the current environment is carrying real cost and real uncertainty — and they are pricing that in.
They are also realistic about timescales. A site that might have sold unconditionally three years ago may need a different structure today. That is not a reflection of the land’s quality. It is a reflection of where the market is.
The owners who recognise that — and engage constructively rather than waiting for conditions to change — are the ones completing.
The Risk of Waiting
It is tempting to assume that holding out will be rewarded. That the market will shift, that interest rates will fall further, that developer confidence will return in full — and that today’s cautious offers will look conservative in hindsight.
That may happen. But it is not guaranteed. And the cost of waiting is not neutral.
Maintenance costs continue. Opportunity costs accumulate. Planning policy evolves — sometimes in ways that benefit a site, and sometimes in ways that do not. And developer interest, once it moves on, does not always come back to the same site at the same level.
For many landowners, the better question is not whether they could get more by waiting — but whether the certainty of a transaction today is worth more than the possibility of a higher price at some point in the future.
Our View
We are not suggesting landowners undervalue what they own. Good land with genuine
development potential has real value, and securing that value properly matters.
But the clearest message from the current market is this: the gap between a realistic asking price and a completed transaction has rarely been smaller for those willing to engage sensibly. And the gap between an unrealistic asking price and a sale has rarely been wider.
If you own land and have been uncertain about whether now is the right time to explore the market, the honest answer is that there is appetite out there — for the right sites, at the right price, with owners who are ready to have a real conversation.
Aston Mead Land & Planning advises landowners across the South East and South West of England. If you have land you believe may have development potential and would like to discuss your options in confidence, please get in touch with our team at astonmead.land
