Sigma Homes is a growing strategic land business with a significant and growing portfolio of sites under promotion across the South East. The business has increased its focus on strategic land promotion over recent years, working closely with landowners to promote sites through the Local Plan process to secure housing allocations and planning permissions, and then to market and sell sites to housebuilders. The team needed a platform that could support their continued business growth and provide a more collaborative and efficient way of working.
We spoke with Chris East, Group Land Director and incoming Chief Executive of Sigma Homes and Sigma Strategic Land, about why his team chose Searchland over other platforms.
Challenges before Searchland:
- Land managers and planners working in separate systems with limited shared visibility.
- A legacy platform that was increasingly complex and time-consuming to access the site data.
- A tool that did not have direct connectivity to external datasets, requiring access and additional time searching through other databases to complete research.
"What's the best tool for my team? Ultimately, it’s a business decision"
Chris had relied on another platform for many years, but recognised that Searchland offered clear advantages, built on modern technology and delivering a more intuitive, joined-up way of bringing multiple site datasets together. It was the right time to see what else the market had to offer.
Rather than forcing a change, Chris invited his team to trial multiple platforms.
“It’s my decision, but I’m not going to impose a system on the team if they don’t want it. They ran the demos, spent a couple of weeks working with each platform, and came back saying: ‘We prefer Searchland.’”
"Searchland’s software is built for today’s land teams”
“Searchland’s software is simply built better, easier to navigate and brings together multiple datasets in one clear and concise platform.”
For Chris, the decision became clear as comparisons were made and the team delivered their verdict.
“Our previous platform’s architecture had been left behind. They took their eye off the ball on what mattered most to customers.”
“We use Searchland in different ways, with one shared view of our pipeline"
Today Sigma Homes and Sigma Strategic Land use Searchland in many different ways:
- The land team uses it to identify and appraise new land opportunities.
- The chartered town planners rely on it for planning research.
- Chris uses the Projects dashboard to manage the sites pipeline and run team meetings
Rather than working in silos, the team now operates from a single shared Projects view, giving everyone visibility into each opportunity, organised by development stage.
“We meet every Monday morning for our land meeting. I put Searchland up on the screen, pop open the Projects file, and there is my meeting agenda.”
What's next for Sigma?
As Sigma moves away from house building operations to focus on the rapidly growing Strategic Land business, Searchland remains central to its future growth plans.
“When we give constructive feedback, Searchland listens. We’re confident the platform will keep evolving—and that it will remain the number one choice for us.”
We’re proud to support Sigma Homes and Sigma Strategic Land as a long-term partner on their journey.
- Quotes from Chris East, Group Land Director at Sigma Homes
Want to see how Searchland can help you source sites and assess strategic land at scale? Book a demo with our team today.
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