The Value of Housing Design and Layout

We do not want to repeat recent mistakes - soulless estates, cramped housing and inefficient neighbourhood layouts. We want to see houses where people aspire to live and stay. Investing in the design of these new buildings and, just as importantly, in the quality of the public space between them is imperative if we are to deliver the neighbourhoods of tomorrow. Sir Stuart Lipton Chairman, CABE "We have to raise the quality of how we build and what we build What we want are places where people want to live, not leave. That's the step change For far too long we've allowed low density housing on our precious land I am taking steps to ensure that future housing developments in the South East will be at over 30 homes per hectare. Because upping the density is essential to delivering sustainable communities." John Prescott Deputy Prime Minister Speech to the Urban Summit, 31st October 2002 National opinion surveys consistently show that a significant section of the house buying public would never consider purchasing a new house, preferring more established neighbourhoods and building stock. House-builders must therefore look to offer more attractive designs. Innovative thinking, integration with existing communities and investment in quality are the key elements that will persuade people that they want to live in modern housing. Most house-builders analyse costs and value on the basis of the square footage of the built product. This means that only the value of built units is taken into account and not the value added to the site itself. This may appear to be a subtle distinction but it has a profound impact on the way that property development and finance works. The conventional method of measuring value fails to fully recognise the contribution that master planning, design and layout has on the efficient use of land and overall value of a site. The impact of housing design and layout - commissioned by CABE and the ODPM - has been specifically written to: Investigate whether differences in the design and layout of a site has an impact on the commercial value of the site for the developer. Provide a methodological framework that assesses and analyses overall site values on the basis of the land covered, rather than the square footage of units built.This major new report demonstrates a way of measuring the economic dividends of investing in high quality housing design and layout. It pilots a methodology that developers, funders, planners and house-builders can use for making like-for-like comparisons between different housing developments on any site in any location and will answer the following key questions: Can a developer add value to a site by adopting different development practices? Do the benefits outweigh the costs? Is value dictated purely by location? Does it make any difference to design differently or innovatively?

Table of Contents:
Executive summary Introduction Addressing the gaps Methodology Research results and discussion Conclusions Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Appendix 4 Appendix 5 Acknowledgements