Disposals director Hannah Deverell returned to Richborough in February 2024, having previously worked for us 10 years ago!
Here Hannah answers questions about her role with us and the land promotion industry.
- What does a typical day involve for a disposals director?
- Reviewing our pipeline and budget to assess which sites will be ready for disposal over the next 12-18 months and understanding the context of those sites in more detail, in terms of it’s planning position, viability and deliverability;
- Liaising with our regional and technical teams to make sure the sites are ready for disposal and that all opportunities and constraints have been well considered to ensure the site is packaged suitably when taken to the market
- Assessing and negotiating bids received for our marketed sites to understand if we are achieving an optimised value, which in turn helps us understand market performance;
- Liaising with housebuilders, solicitors, selling agent’s and landowners to ensure all parties are working together to see through a sale completion in the timescales identified.
2. What do you enjoy about your role as disposals director?
- Having an opportunity to work with all the regions across the business and working on a variety of sites of different size and context all up and down the country, which gives a great insight into how the market varies within each region. I also get to understand how the business works internally in a wider sense, too.
3. What do you enjoy about working for Richborough?
- Working with a pragmatic, understanding and fun team, as well as getting to know new housebuilder contacts up and down the country. I’ve always been Midlands based so it’s great to be working on disposals outside of the Midlands which helps broaden our understanding of the key players in those markets.
4. What do you think are essential key skills to have as a disposals director?
- I think our role is definitely jack of all trades, master of none! But the key for our role is the ability to take whatever issue may come our way and not be afraid to learn, challenge and negotiate. There’s always something new that crosses our desk and we may not be experts or may not have ever come across that issue before, but we are willing to understand, learn, communicate with all parties and try and find the best solution for everyone. Oh, and how to use a calculator is essential!!
5. What is your proudest achievement with Richborough?
- I’ve only been in this role for 9 months, but I have been particular proud of some of the “full circle” moments I have had, coming back into the business 10 years after I first started with Richborough and leading on disposals for sites which I helped acquire for the business when I was in a Land & Planning Manager role. Kempsey and Haddenham are two examples of this, so it was a pleasure to sell those both those sites in such a short time-frame!
Contact Hannah: hannah.deverell@richborough.co.uk