Harworth completes acquisition of two Midlands sites

Harworth Group plc, the brownfield land and property developer, has purchased two land sites in the Midlands to accelerate the expansion of its strategic land bank.

Both sites have been purchased using part of the £27.1m raised from the Rotherham-headquartered company’s equity placing in March 2017.

The sites also sit adjacent to existing Harworth landholdings, thus generating marriage value (additional value) when combined.

The first site Harworth purchased is a 145-acre site in Coalville, Leicestershire,which neighbours its existing Coalville development site, for £11.8m plus acquisition costs.

The newly acquired site already benefits from planning consent for 914 residential plots and the transaction brings marriage value when combined with Harworth’s existing planning consent.

The deal brings the total number of consented plots at Coalville under Harworth control to 2,016 plots, providing a 15-year development pipeline.

Harworth has also purchased an 88-acre site at Chatterley Valley, Staffordshire, close to the A500 that neighbours its existing 24-acre freehold site, for £2.6m plus acquisition costs.

The combined 112-acre site benefits from an extant planning consent for 1.2m sq. ft of commercial development, generating marriage value and providing a 10-year development pipeline.

These deals bring the total number of consented residential plots currently under Harworth’s ownership to 10,085, alongside 11.2m sq. ft of consented commercial development space.

Owen Michaelson, chief executive officer, said: “Growing and expanding our strategic land bank is fundamental to delivering continued value to our shareholders and both purchases provide clear long-term value adding opportunities.

“The outlook in the Midlands market remains healthy, driven by comparatively low prices, a lack of housing land supply and the scarcity of good quality new commercial units.

“Good progress has also been made in securing other land and property targets identified in March’s equity placing. We therefore expect that all of the funds raised in March will be committed by the year end.”