propertytalk Live! - Half a million new homes to be built on hazardous 'second-hand' land

propertytalk Live! - Half a million new homes to be built on hazardous 'second-hand' land

Over the next decade around half a million homes will be built on redeveloped ex-industrial sites that could pose risks to homeowners and their homes.

A new report from home insurer LV= reveals that around 125 million square metres of redeveloped brownfield land, earmarked for the building of 500,000 homes, is potentially at risk of flooding or contamination, which could cost homeowners thousands of pounds to address.

Brownfield sites are defined as land which has potential for redevelopment after previously being occupied by another permanent building, such as a factory or industrial works. Redeveloping brownfield sites is a cornerstone of the current national housing policy, with 79% of all new builds being built on recycled land in recent years.

Yet according to the research, over one in ten (11%) new homes built on brownfield land have suffered problems as a result of the land the property is built on, affecting a total of 74,000 homes in the last ten years. The most common problem is flooding, but there are also cases of contamination, poor drainage and sewage problems.

Brownfield hotspots likely to be developed in the near future include many urban parts of the North East, North West and West Midlands (such as Humberside, Greater Manchester and Birmingham), due to the density of former industrial activity in these areas. In the South, brownfield targets for housing development include parts of London Docklands and towns where former military land could be redeveloped for housing, such as Portsmouth.

One of the drivers behind the current policy encouraging house builders to redevelop land is the creation of affordable homes for first-time buyers. The research shows that few (17%) prospective buyers are actually specifically looking to buy new build housing, rather many feel that this is the only option available to them through local authority shared ownership schemes as many of these properties are new builds. Others say they are persuaded to buy new build homes because of incentives such as deposit cash back schemes from developers or free white goods.