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Possibly. But no one’s going to sell you the land for nothing. They’ll keep it until it’s worth something.
That's why I think the solution for this kind of deeply outdated, inefficient housing stock is council-led compulsory purchase. Who wants to live in the one renovated house in a street of grow houses? I think they managed something similar in the Welsh Streets in Liverpool but I can't claim to be an expert.
NickCJ-
For sure. It does happen and can work.
They knocked down streets and streets of Victorian and Edwardian houses in Cambridge city centre to build a shopping centre in the 80s, when a new Debenhams was worth so much more per square foot than old houses that you could suffer the build cost and still make a profit. Of course now that shopping centre sits empty and there’s talk of squishing it to build houses.
Hefty
Possibly. But no one’s going to sell you the land for nothing. They’ll keep it until it’s worth something. And since it usually takes 2 years from start to finish no one’s going to invest the cost of building unless the return on investment is 20% or more.