Land is vital to our lives for many reasons: from the crops it grows to the trees and wildlife it sustains, and the parts of it that we choose to live and work on.
Understanding land is important for professionals and those wanting to buy and develop it, and a specialist digital platform has been created to simplify this often very technical process.
Addland has been designed to help users understand the opportunities that every piece of land in the UK may potentially offer, by making it easy to find, research, buy or sell land.
The site aims to lead the land industry through its use of cutting-edge technology to produce accurate, accessible data. Addland is the largest dedicated platform in the UK and the only place where you can find and research land together.
You can search for land via Addland using the form below:
What is Addland?
It’s the brainchild of Thomas McAlpine, who grew up around land and construction and became a land promoter. Realising that digital technology could be used to radically simplify his role, he started the initial planning for Addland in 2018.
His embryonic idea has rapidly grown and there are now 10,000 registered members of Addland benefitting from being able to find and research land on one site. The site’s due diligence tools remove hours of manual work and can achieve results in seconds, transforming the land industry from spreadsheets to a visually based system that really brings land to life.
Thomas McAlpine explained:
My role was to find promotion opportunities for development, and I realised that it was incredibly fragmented. First, you had to identify the potential sites, which was like doing countryside Tetris on Google Maps. Then you had to do all the due diligence: is there a flood zone, is there a listed building in the sightlines, is there a scheduled monument… it is incredibly time-consuming going to multiple government data sources.
Once I’d done that, I had to get in touch with the landowner, look into the planning history, establish a value, and look at the neighbourhood plans. By the time you had done all of that, it was pretty much a day’s work. I thought ‘I must be able to make this information available quickly and easily, in a more digestible format.’
Using the latest mapping technology and imagery to showcase all aspects of the land in question, Addland makes it easy to find out whether it suits your needs by giving information about multiple considerations, including:
- Land boundaries
- Flood zones
- Listed buildings
- Public rights of way
- Current and historic planning applications
- Ownership data
- Valuation comparables
- Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty
- Greenbelt
- Ancient woodlands
Its advanced research tools use data from trusted sources, including:
- HM Land Registry
- Ordnance Survey
- The Environment Agency
- Natural England
Addland’s other advantages:
The platform can be used wherever you are: search for your location using a what3words address, and highly accurate data layers can be accessed instantly, including land use category, land classification, nitrate and safeguard zones, plus environmental stewardship data, identifying land which is in stewardship schemes. The site also gives information on terrain via topography maps and topography heat maps.
Andrew Smith, Addland’s Chief Customer Officer, said:
We’re constantly forging ahead with functionality to enhance our customers’ lives and make land easy. Seamless integration of what3words means that wherever you are, you can access relevant land data in seconds, confident in the knowledge that all data is associated with the official Land Registry land polygon and powered by trusted sources.
If you are searching for land, Addland can help narrow it down to specifics, using key land types: rural, residential, agricultural, development, and environmental. You can further refine the options, for example by planning status, price type, and purchase type, i.e., auction.
Who can use Addland?
Individual land buyers
Those searching for a variety of properties with land, from self-build plots and conversion opportunities to equestrian land or smallholdings, and wanting to undertake initial research about purchase considerations including planning data, or find expert help.
Professional land buyers
Buyers seeking development opportunities, both by finding land for sale as well as having direct access to comprehensive due diligence resources including planning, valuation, and ownership data.
Land agents
Agents wanting to simplify and speed up property valuations, undertake site assessments, or access property ownership details for new instructions, as well as use Addland’s land showcase to promote their properties and generate leads.
There are 2 types of membership:
Addland Essential
This is a free-to-access membership, offering a personalised dashboard where you can save favourite plots, contact land agents, book viewings, monitor progress, and access data to help you decide whether the land is viable for your needs. You can get title ownership details, Land Registry boundary details, boundary data for parishes, districts, and counties, plus information on key considerations including flood zones and public rights of way.
Addland Professional
This provides comprehensive professional-level due diligence tools for £99 per month, for land agents, developers, architects, and planners. It includes planning applications, ownership records, valuation comparables, agricultural classifications, terrain data layers, and measuring tools. Each land assessment can be saved as an Addland land report to be shared digitally, either by shared project spaces or a PDF.
The research tool can be used to find off-market opportunities: this may lead to an approach to owners of pieces of land that others may not be aware of as potential development sites, giving a head start on the competition.
Proven value
Using Addland proved extremely useful in helping estate agents and agricultural specialists Cooper and Tanner of Somerset and Wiltshire secure a strategic land instruction.
Darren Woodyer, development department manager at Cooper and Tanner said:
I won a strategic land instruction on 10.5 acres off the back of all the necessary data from Addland in a short window, from finding the opportunity and pitching it to them.
Cooper and Tanner’s development team uses an Addland Professional account giving access to every research data layer, as well as unlimited use of Addland’s land showcase. The firm has also been using the site’s latest feature, `Professional Listings’, giving them access to its exclusive professional buyer network.
Addland is geared to help agents act quickly, whether they need to complete site assessments or market residential, development, and agricultural land. Rapid access to information all in one place, from soil assessment data to prior and current planning information for a potential development site, can mean the difference between winning an instruction or not. This information can also help developers progress a scheme.
Site extras
Addland has a `Find a Land Agent’ section, where you can enter a postcode to find local agents. It also publishes helpful Land Guides, such as `Help with finding, researching, buying or selling land’, and covers topics such as woodland, the benefits of planting trees, how to apply for planning permission, and an introduction to Biodiversity Net Gain.
Find out more
If you need to get detailed information about land quickly and thoroughly, visit Addland for more details.
