Biography
Ian is a partner in the Real Estate team, specialising in the residential development sector.
Ian’s key clients are PLC and SME developers, land promoters and landowners. He assists clients at all stages of the development lifecycle, from land purchase through to site set up and disposals. He regularly advises on strategic land acquisitions including options, promotion agreements and overage arrangements.
Ian strives to cut through to the heart of a deal in pursuit of his clients’ commercial aims, whilst avoiding unnecessary legal back-and-forth.
Before joining Ashfords, Ian trained and spent five years with an international law firm where he established his interest in residential development and acted for some of the country’s biggest developers and national housebuilders.
Ian has a first-class degree in German from the University of Bristol, as part of which he spent a year teaching in Niedersachsen in north west Germany. He also has a first-class Law degree from the University of Law.
Relevant experience
- Wichelstowe LLP: retained on an ongoing basis by the joint venture between BDW Trading Limited and Swindon Borough Council on the development of up to 3000 houses as a southern expansion of Swindon. Advice covers all aspects from initial land purchase through to build out and disposals.
- Vistry Homes Limited: advising the national housebuilder’s south west division on the acquisition of a circa 900 unit site in Devon.
- SME Housebuilder: acting on a conditional contract, option agreement and bespoke overage variation in respect of two interlinked parcels of land in Wiltshire for a significant new development for a west-country based housebuilder
- M7 Planning Limited and Octavia Homes Limited: leading on several strategic promotion and option agreements for the acquisition of residential development land across the south west, as well as sub-sale and sub-option agreements.
- Landowners: acting for landowners on a complex promotion agreement in relation to land in Buckinghamshire capable of delivering up to 900 new homes as part of a significant urban expansion.
