The strong housing market has fuelled demand for sites suitable for residential development, according to Savills.

Across the UK, the property firm’s development teams sold £1.25bn of land in the first six months of 2021, consisting of 136 sites with capacity for 27,774 plots.

The half year figure is double the value achieved compared to the first half of last year and is a 48% increase over the three-year average for H1.

In the regions outside of London the Savills teams sold 110 sites with capacity for 22,648 plots. The total value achieved was over £922m, this is 69% above H1 2020 and 45% above the three year average for H1.

In Q2 alone the teams sold 67 sites with capacity for 12.271 plots, a total value of £726m.

London has had a particularly strong Q2 with 26 sites sold and a combined capacity for 5,126 homes. The total value achieved across London was £332,173,000.

Savills land teams also found that the second quarter of the year saw a particular trend towards larger sites, with 31% of the sites sold having capacity for over 250 homes, up from just 12% of sales in Q2 2020 and 23% in Q2 2019.

Patrick Eve, Savills head of regional development, said: “We have had a very strong first half of the year and our development land teams across the UK have capitalized on the strength of the housing market in the second half of 2020, which gave land buyers more confidence. The high sales rates of last year have depleted housebuilders’ stocks of new homes and land, meaning that land replenishment will be an ongoing feature of the 2021 market.”

He added: “Our research tells us land values have remained robust over the last quarter with UK greenfield and urban values increasing by 1.7% and 1.8% respectively, marking the strongest growth in greenfield land values since 2014. We have seen a particularly busy second quarter, with activity levels in the land market higher than previous quarters.”