International real estate adviser, Savills, is delighted to welcome Lawrence Marsh as head of development for its Amersham, Barnet, Beaconsfield, Harpenden, Northwood and Rickmansworth offices.

With more than 25 years’ experience in the residential property market, including in new homes sales and land acquisition, Lawrence has a reputation in the industry for securing prime residential development sites.

His remit at Savills is to generate land sales and, subsequently, new home sales using and building upon, Savills’s existing list of developer clients.

He comments: “The area I am looking after has been my area of expertise for the past 12 years and I am very much looking forward to the prospect of using my experience as a developer and land buyer in my capacity at Savills. Understanding developers’ requirements and the information they require to aid the decision making process, will, without question, be advantageous.

“The scope of this new opportunity with Savills seems without limits. While we all remain cautiously optimistic about the improving housing market, confidence does seem to be returning. Some developers who may have been cautious about acquiring sites during the down turn, may now been urgently looking to acquire development sites with permission already in place. By Savills taking a pro-active approach to identify sites to developers, I am sure that our market share of new home sales will improve dramatically.”

Paul Jarman, head of Savills Home Counties Region, comments: “I am delighted to welcome Lawrence to our team. With his extensive knowledge and expertise, I am certain he will make an immeasurable contribution to our business.”

THE AUTUMN MARKET

Savills has identified some significant early signs of market recovery over the first three months of 2009.

Head of region, Paul Jarman, sums up the 2009 market to date as far more optimistic than the same period of 2008. He comments: “Following a slow start to the year, market activity has substantially increased in our offices from around the region. This has been fuelled by increased demand and a noticeable shortage of good quality stock as well as a shift in sentiment among buyers. Consequently, by the half year, we have found trading almost as brisk as in autumn 2007, and certainly a lot more buoyant than in any month throughout 2008.

“Some offices within the Home Counties have enjoyed particularly good success and, notably, our Cobham office (which only opened in April last year) has experienced a very active market, as have our offices in Amersham and Rickmansworth (both of whom recently reported their best residential months in history).

“The cost controls we implemented last year, coupled with this year’s market activity, seem to have paid dividends and we enter the autumn market in a strong position, with our main concern being a shortage of prime properties, not a shortage of good purchasers.”