Land Negotiator

William Manders

Property Development

Placement (10 Months+)

Croudace

Describing your role and what it entails

My job title is ‘Land Negotiator’ and my role is to acquire new immediate land, consisting of 30 to 120 dwellings. Immediate land consists of sites that we aim to commence construction within one year of purchase, these sites will typically have outline/detailed planning consent or will be purchased on a subject to planning basis if we believe permission will be granted imminently. Part of my role includes building relationships with land agents to ensure we are receiving the latest and most appropriate land opportunities to meet our requirements. In order to make successful land offers I need to have a good technical understanding of various construction strategies and how to cost these, including: surface water and foul water drainage strategies, service connections, foundations types etc. I also have to undertake sales work to calculate the gross development value in order to carry out a land valuation. If our offer is successful I am then responsible for agreeing heads of terms and I am involved in the contract negotiations. A further element to my role includes the sale of affordable housing, I go out to tender to various housing associations and have to agree the specification and legal contracts with the chosen party.

What have been your highlights?

Highlights have included some of the various networking events I have attended, such as two comedy lunches, featuring Dara O’Briain and Jimmy Carr. Attending the Taste of London networking event in Regent’s Park was another fun event.

What have been your challenges

One of the main challenges I have faced is the level of responsibility you are given from the start as a graduate and on my placement year. However, this does make you learn more quickly, there have been technical and legal issues on various sites that I have had to deal with – which means asking for help from technical and legal colleagues to overcome the challenges.

What you have learnt

I have learnt a lot throughout my time at Croudace, a lot of these things relate to my job role but also how to act in a professional setting and working with professionals from a variety of disciplines.

Any advice to a student that may be following in your footsteps

I would recommend going on a placement year, you learn a lot in a year out from university and can bring back this knowledge to help in your final year. It also makes you far more employable and you may get a job offer while on placement.