Two national housebuilders are eyeing up a large piece of land owned by Swansea Council. The council owns 83 acres west of Fforestfach and north of Waunarlwydd, which is part of a much larger site set aside for over 1,300 houses, a primary school, commercial units and other employment facilities.

A report due to be presented to the cabinet on March 21 suggests that talks with the two unnamed housebuilders should continue. This could lead to an “option” agreement, where the companies have the choice to buy the land at a future date for a price that’s been checked by an independent expert.

The report says: “Option agreements provide contractual certainty to developers, who are reluctant to invest heavily in site investigations, planning costs, and professional fees without knowing that they will be able to secure the land, after their time, effort and money have been invested,” said the report.

The 83 acres of council-owned land are split into two parts. One housebuilder is interested in both parts, while the other only wants one of them.

The larger area they’re part of has been marked out for housing and jobs in Swansea’s local development plan. The goal is to build 716 houses by the end of 2025, with another 603 to follow in the years after that, reports Wales Online.

The report mentioned that the land has many owners and problems like flooding, but it also said that two housebuilders are close to making deals with nearby landowners. “This results in there being little or no merit in this council attempting to market and sell its land holdings on the open market to any other purchaser(s),” the report stated.

This issue is going to the cabinet because the sale price might be more than £1 million.

The area planned for new homes and jobs goes west towards Gowerton. Last year, Persimmon Homes asked the council if they could build up to 230 houses in the western part.

The new homes would use Fairwood Road to get there.

This land is one of 12 big places in Swansea chosen for a lot of house-building by 2025 and later. But right now, they’re not building houses as fast as they should be.

A report from last October showed that between 2010 and the end of March 2023, Swansea only built 6,315 houses and flats. They want to build 15,600 new homes from 2010 until the end of 2025.

Councillors heard that other areas in Wales are also behind schedule. This is because of things like the Covid pandemic, not enough workers, prices of materials going up, and new rules about keeping nature safe and managing water.