Martin Leyland has joined Rapleys as a Partner, heading up its newly formed Strategic Land team.
He has extensive knowledge of and over twenty years’ experience in the residential land market. He has led national teams of strategic land professionals for house builders, most recently as Managing Director of Barratt Strategic Land, and is a leading expert in the identification, negotiation, promotion and delivery of medium and long term residential sites.
He specialises in innovative approaches to the legal context of land promotion and places a strong emphasis on the financial health of projects.
Martin said “I joined Rapleys because of my experience as a client over the years has highlighted an unfulfilled need for planning and property consultancies to provide a more commercially aware approach to project promotion, and to share the commercial ambitions of the client by acting as an extension of their own management teams. My focus is to provide a resource to link financial and development clients successfully to the medium/long term land market opportunities available, and to provide an exemplar project leadership resource to the promoters of strategic projects”.
Robert Clarke, Head of Town Planning, added: “This is an exciting time for the practice. Martin’s appointment, coupled with our existing services, provides a unique offer in the marketplace. I am looking forward to realising the evident opportunities, that lie ahead, for our client base. Martin’s extensive wide planning and commercial and geographic background will deliver bespoke professional support to our clients’ requirements”.
Jim Banks, Senior Partner at Rapleys commented: “We are delighted to welcome Martin to the Partnership as it is quite clear that our clients are seeking comprehensive advice relative to strategic residential land. With Martin’s experience being ‘at the coal face’, having worked for the major volume housebuilders and by liaising with our in-house planning, development and project management teams, we can now offer a truly comprehensive and informed service to landowners, developers and other related parties.”