Henry Adams appoints Consultant for Development Land

The Development Land Consultancy division at Henry Adams has appointed Simon Boakes as a specialist consultant with effect from the end of April 2022. Initially, Simon will be involved with the sale of Old Malling Farm in Lewes, a prime residential site with outline planning permission for 226 units.

Prior to becoming a consultant to work on specific projects, Simon Boakes spent 20 years at Croudace, most recently as Land Director for seven years. His previous roles at the housebuilder included 11 years as a solicitor, where he was responsible for overseeing all legal aspects of land transactions. He is still a practising solicitor.

Commenting on his new appointment, Simon said, “This new role will be very interesting as it involves handling land from the other side of the fence as an agent, to ensure our landowner client achieves the optimum land value.

“There’s a huge amount of work that goes into promoting and marketing land, and of course, once Heads of Terms are agreed, the detailed work to keep the transaction moving forward then ramps up. And that’s where I come in. It’s really good to be involved in this part of the industry. I’ve built up a pot of skills over my career which can now all be used to advance this project on behalf of Henry Adams Development Land.

“Having worked with Henry Adams over the course of many years in my previous roles, I’ve always found them an exemplary organisation to work with. Invariably the reaction from everyone is that they’re really good people to work with, which is how they’ve built up such an excellent reputation in the industry.”

Martin Curry, Partner at Henry Adams, said, “The land market is exceptionally busy at the moment and it’s vital that every aspect of our transactions is covered in detail. It’s great to have Simon on board, particularly given his depth of experience in this sector, and we look forward to working with him initially on Old Malling Farm. This scheme has, understandably, already generated considerable interest.”

Simon has lived in Sussex all his life, so knows the region well. He is married with two grown-up sons and his main hobbies include cycling and classic cars - so there’s already a lot of common ground with the team at Henry Adams who have previously taken on numerous fundraising cycling and car rally challenges!

For more information on the development opportunity in Lewes, visit Henry Adams's website at Old Malling Farm.