Knight Frank's recent report "Building Better, Building Beautiful Commission: Cost & Value - 2020" provides a fascinating insight into some of the UK's largest housing development projects.

There is often an misused argument that there must be "economies of scale" in large housing projects.  With infrastructure costs this is simply not the case.

Knight Frank highlights a project in Fareham, a new garden village to include 6000 homes.  

It found that the project’s viability is being challenged by its infrastructure costs which, at £510 per sq m, are almost 5x the contribution made by other proposed developments in Fareham.

It concludes that "Large projects carry more than their fair share of infrastructure costs, allowing other developments to ‘free ride’ on the value they create."

A very honest assessment of the benefits that large housing developments bring,  but at a significant cost.