Property

Q. How do you find new property sites?
A. We have a team of development surveyors who work alongside regeneration companies, local councils and landowners in the UK regions to develop opportunities as they arise.  We are always looking for new sites.  If you have land to develop please click here.   

Q. Do you always build the houses and commercial units on the sites you develop?
A. Not in every case - many of the sites we develop are sold to house builders or other construction companies.  We gain planning permission, carry out consultation, carry out any remediation required, construct the roads infrastructure and often provide landscaping services, before selling the land on as an ‘oven ready’ site.  However we have started to build residential and commercial units on some of sites and hope to expand this part of our business.

Q. Most of your projects involve brownfield land, how can we be assured that houses on these sites are safe from subsidence or pollution?
A. Banks has a great deal of experience in remediating sites, this could involve contamination, old mine workings and old waste management sites.  Our engineers work with specialists in these areas to identify the problem and develop comprehensive solutions, for which a warranty is provided.  These solutions must satisfy the planning authority’s specialists and the environment agency.  During house building the site would be inspected by the NHBC who would provide the certificate required.

Q. What sort of houses do you build?
A. It depends on the location of the site.  We have developed sites for luxury apartments in city centres, affordable housing in suburbs as part of regeneration projects and smaller communities with a mix of housing to suit a variety of needs.  It is important to us that we build and design houses in keeping with the existing surroundings, which means that we often produce design guidelines for developers.  We also build mixed use schemes which means that the site would contain both residential and commercial or retail.

Q. How do you ensure that there are enough amenities for new residents your developments bring to an area?
A. This depends on the site and the number of homes being built.  When designing a site the capacity of all local facilities is taken into account, this assessment is undertaken in consultation with the local authority.  As part of our Development With Care approach we also ensure that we consult with the local communities around the site to make sure that our developments are of benefit to the wider community.

Q. If you are building close to other homes how do you avoid having a detrimental impact on them?
A. We submit a site specific environmental plan for all schemes that we operate to ensure that the site is developed in an environmentally acceptable way.  See our Environment page for our Environmental Policy.

Q. Where can I find out about buying a home on one of your sites?
A. The development process can take some time and very often we do not have details of the houses which will be built until they start being built.  The best place to see what homes are available on our schemes is to watch the site itself where signs will be placed to provide details of the homes which are to be built on site.