Planning Permissions Add 21% to Property Prices

The recent study by Barrows and Forrester reveals planning permission might add up to 52% to property values.

Estate and lettings agent Barrows and Forrester researched property prices across 20 major UK cities and analysed the property prices with granted planning permissions against ordinary homes.

What Are the Central Findings?

The keynote takeaway is that planning permissions add up to 52% to the property prices when it comes to selling.

On average, the added value reaches 21% or £46k.

Bradford in West Yorkshire saw the most significant price premium of 52% on homes with planning permission. It means a staggering increase of £81k in added value.

Birmingham and Bournemouth come a close second, where properties with pre-granted planning permissions cost 51% more. But the monetary sense of the price premiums is the highest in the areas – £106k and £159k, respectively.

Other major cities, including Liverpool, Sunderland, and Leicester, also made it to the top-10, with the price premiums of 47%, 36%, and 21%, accordingly.

But major price increases associated with pre-granted planning permission are not uniform – they bring just 1% of added values to homes in Plymouth and Nottingham.

What Does the Expert Say?

James Forrester of Barrows and Forrester highlights the pandemic-led craving for spacious properties as a driving factor for significant levels of property price growth. Not everyone could afford to buy new homes, so they opted for upsizing. But the planning permission per se can be beneficial when selling homes, even without any construction work completed.

Planning permissions show buyers a greater potential than other properties, including the legal aspect. Additionally, it helps buyers avoid the tedious process of getting the planning permission.