The UK’s airspace is a significant untapped land bank. It’s anticipated in London alone, it could help create 180,000 new homes, rising to a potential of 630,000.  It’s also estimated in London there is 14.3m sq ft of developable airspace with a potential value of £54bn. It will also deliver more space, a better-built community, help support asset repositioning and, ultimately, unlock value.*

Last year, the Government published its revised National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which now supports development above existing residential and commercial premises. This means, securing planning permission is easier than ever before for this type of development.

The LSH service spans a lifecycle capability to include:
 
·         Appraisal – providing an estimated value of what the untapped airspace is worth
·         Planning – handling the planning process from inception through to permission 
·         Build – project managing the build programme
·         Sell or Let – securing the end sale or letting of the newly developed floor space
 
View the Airspace Exchange website

Ezra Nahome, CEO at Lambert Smith Hampton, commented: 
 
“The UK needs between 240,000-340,000 new homes a year until 2031 to meet current demand. These are ambitious figures and with space in short supply, especially across key cities, taking advantage of the benefits of Airspace Exchange will help provide a part long-term solution to the national housing problem.”
 
 
Thaddaeus Jackson-Browne, Head of Airspace Exchange, commented: 
 
“Finding the space to help our urban communities live, work and thrive sustainably is one of the central challenges of our time. The answer is to take advantage of current planning laws, by utilising what you already have, and build up, with airspace. So we’ve developed an online tool that provides owners of property the opportunity to assess the value of their roof space and then we deliver a total solution.  This will begin to address the chronic lack of housing in city locations, reposition struggling assets and build on low-rise retail premises.”
 

*Data Sources – WSP, uvarchitects, HTA Design