100
New development charges, 12 months to June 2026 (-35.9%)
Development exit report · H1 2026
Berkshire Development Exit Report, H1 2026
Who is lending to developers in Berkshire, how many schemes are exiting their development loans, and how quickly new homes are selling. Built from Companies House charges, Land Registry sales and council planning data.
44
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
64.0%
Live development book over 24 months old (60.6% nationally)
905
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-31.2%)
Written and reviewed by Matt Lenzie Founder & Principal Broker · 25 years arranging development finance · Reviewed September 2026
In short
The biggest move in Berkshire over the year to June 2026: new development lending slipped 35.9% to 100 charges. Next largest, registered new-build sales slipped 31.2% to 905 over the latest settled year. The age of the local development book stands out: 64.0% of live charges are older than two years, against 60.6% for England and Wales. 861 residential approvals over the latest 12 months set up the pipeline that will need refinancing next.
Scorecard
Berkshire at a glance
How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.
| Signal | Berkshire | Change | Basis | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges | 100 | -35.9% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before | Down |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 44 | -15.4% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before; recent filings provisional | Down |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 63 | -17.1% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Down |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 64.0% | +3.4 pts | at 30 June 2026, compared with 60.6% across England and Wales | Above national |
| New-build sales registered | 905 | -31.2% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Down |
| New developer and property companies | 1,086 | +5.4% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Up |
Companies House · development lending
Development lending and exits in Berkshire
Development lenders registered 100 new charges against sites and developers in Berkshire in the 12 months to June 2026, against 156 in the 12 months before (-35.9%). Those charges were taken by 70 separate borrowing companies.
Set against that, 44 development charges were satisfied (repaid) in the same year: 0.44 repayments per new loan (England and Wales: 0.4). Exits are keeping up with new lending.
Loans repaid over the year had been outstanding for a median 21.9 months (22.4 the year before).
A charge is the security a lender registers at Companies House. It shows that a loan was taken and when it was repaid (satisfied), not how much was lent. Repayments are filed late, so the latest six months are provisional.
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · exit-type lending
Bridging and specialist lending to Berkshire developers
Bridging lenders, specialist banks and funds took 63 charges over Berkshire development companies in the year to June 2026 (-17.1% on the 76 of the year before).
Bridging lenders held the largest number, 32. The first half of 2026 alone brought 31, against 30 in the first half of 2025.
Exit-type lending counts charges registered by bridging lenders, specialist banks and private credit funds against companies whose registered business is developing buildings (SIC 41100 or 41202). It is the market that refinances development debt at completion and funds the sales period.
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · lender categories
Who is lending in Berkshire
Across all 2,053 charges registered against property in Berkshire over the year, specialist lenders held 87.0% of those we can match to a lender type, against 88.4% nationally. Little different from the national picture.
Lenders are grouped by category from the Construction Capital lender register and never named.
Specialist and challenger banksBridging lendersHigh-street banksDevelopment lenders, funds and other
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Land Registry · sales
How quickly new homes are selling
Berkshire recorded 905 new-build sales in the settled 12 months to July 2025, against 1,316 the year before (-31.2%). That is 7.2% of the market, against a national 8.3%.
Buyers paid 50.7% more for a new flat than a second-hand one, and 25.8% more for a new house, on median prices.
Total sales, read over the settled year to January 2026 so late registrations do not distort the change: 11,817 (+0.4%).
Land Registry registers new-build plot sales up to a year after completion, so new-build figures use the latest settled 12 months. Prices are transaction-sample medians, not a like-for-like index.
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Construction Capital analysis
Planning · pipeline
The next wave of schemes needing an exit
Between 20 September 2025 and 21 September 2026, 861 residential applications were approved (468 other relevant, 118 conversion, 100 new build) and 566 awaited a decision.
Where an approval states units (179 of them), they add up to at least 2,478 homes.
Residential applications from council planning portals over each council's latest 12-month window. Unit counts are only stated on some applications, so unit totals are a floor.
| Largest approved schemes (stated units) | Units | Type | Decided |
|---|---|---|---|
| Land Bordered By Woodlands Park Avenue And Woodlands Park Road Maidenhead | 293 | other relevant | 2026-07-24 |
| Land South Of Kimbers Lane Maidenhead | 225 | new build | 2026-04-30 |
| Parcels R7 And R13 Land At Phase 2b Of The South Wokingham Strategic Development Location (Sdl) Wokingham | 215 | other residential | 2026-09-16 |
| Site A Open Field North Of Lower Mount Farm Long Lane Cookham Maidenhead | 160 | other residential | 2026-05-07 |
| Shorts Waste Transfer And Recycling Facility St Georges Lane Ascot Sl5 7et | 131 | other relevant | 2025-12-04 |
Companies House · registrations
New developer companies
1,086 new development and property companies registered in Berkshire in the year to June 2026 (+5.4%), 448 of them as developers.
Half-year to half-year: 511 in the first half of 2026, 581 a year before.
Companies registered with SIC 41100, 41202 or 68100, placed by registered office. The register lists live companies only, so earlier periods lose companies since dissolved.
Benchmark
Berkshire against England and Wales
| Measure | Berkshire | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 100 | -35.9% | 9,544 | +11.7% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 44 | -15.4% | 3,785 | +21.1% |
| Live development book at 30 June 2026 | 636 | 41,855 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 64.0% | 60.6% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 63 | -17.1% | 5,241 | +3.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 905 | -31.2% | 68,506 | -6.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 7.2% | 8.3% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 1,086 | +5.4% | 61,275 | +7% |
What it means
What this means for developers exiting in Berkshire
Reading the signals as a set: new companies is up, while new development lending, loan repayments, exit-type lending, new-build sales are down.
An older-than-average book is the clearest local sign of schemes overrunning. Developers in that position usually refinance onto an exit facility or sell at a discount to clear senior debt.
Slower new-build sales stretch the time between completion and the last sale, which is the gap exit finance is designed to cover.
Terms depend on the scheme, the sales evidence and the developer, and no finance is guaranteed. We are a finance broker, not a lender. Development exit finance for companies is unregulated lending.
Read how a development exit loan is sized, or compare the national picture in the Development Exit Demand Tracker. Local market detail sits on our development exit finance in Berkshire page.
Methodology and sources
Companies House charges (security instruments, not loans: no amounts, LTVs or rates). Development lending = charges held by specialist development lenders, or by development-active mixed lenders where the borrower carries SIC 41100/41202, the charge wording names development land or a site, or the borrower is a newly incorporated (within 12 months) SIC 68100 company with no buy-to-let SIC (the same rule as the national Development Exit Demand Tracker). Exit-type lending to developers = charges registered by bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit (funder) lenders against companies carrying SIC 41100/41202. A charge is placed by its charged-property postcode, or failing that the borrower's registered office. 'Satisfied' is the filed repayment of a charge: the exit. Exit refinance events are new charges registered on the same title after a specialist development lender's charge was repaid or released (charge stacks, same-group and same-company pairs excluded). Satisfactions are filed late, so the most recent six months are provisional and will rise. Lender categories come from the Construction Capital lender register; lenders are never named.
Land Registry registers new-build plot sales up to a year after completion, so new-build counts, shares and premiums are read only over the settled 12 months ending a year before the data vintage (settled12m) and compared with the 12 months before that. New-build figures in the most recent windows are incomplete and are not used for any headline. HMLR Price Paid, standard (category A) residential sales (detached, semi, terraced, flat) in the location's local authorities. New-build premium compares the median new-build price with the median existing-stock price within flats and within houses; it is a transaction-sample median, not a constant-quality index. Registrations lag completions by weeks to months, so the most recent months (and new-build plots especially) understate final counts; trailing-12-month figures are the steadier read.
Residential planning applications (new build, conversion, prior approval, mixed use, HMO, demolition and rebuild) from the Construction Capital council-portal scrapes, one record set per authority, over each council's rolling 12-month scrape window. Unit counts are stated only on some applications, so totals undercount. Councils not yet scraped are listed as missing, never estimated.
New companies with SIC 41100, 41202 or 68100 by registered-office postcode. The register snapshot holds live companies only, so earlier windows lose companies since dissolved; read year-on-year change as indicative.
Data vintage: charges registered to 2026-07-31, satisfactions filed to 2026-08-03, company register snapshot 2026-08-01, Land Registry transactions to 2026-07-31. Area covered: Bracknell Forest, Reading, Slough, West Berkshire, Windsor And Maidenhead, Wokingham (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 6 cuts suppressed for sample size.
Sources: Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis; HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Construction Capital analysis; Council planning portals, Construction Capital planning scrape. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Companies House data is public and reused under the Open Government Licence.
You are welcome to cite or chart these figures with a link to this page.
FAQ
Development exit in Berkshire: common questions
How much development lending is there in Berkshire?
Development lenders registered 100 new charges in Berkshire in the 12 months to June 2026 (-35.9% on the year before), taken by 70 companies. It counts loans taken, not their value.
Are development schemes in Berkshire overrunning?
At 30 June 2026, 64.0% of live development charges in Berkshire were over 24 months old (England and Wales: 60.6%). Charges that old usually sit on schemes past their original term.
What is development exit finance?
A short-term loan taken at or near practical completion. It repays the development lender and funds the sales or letting period, often at a lower rate than the development loan it replaces, and can release equity for the next scheme. Our development exit finance page covers how it is sized and priced.
Where does this data come from?
Companies House charges and company registrations, HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and council planning portals, all analysed by Construction Capital. Figures below the minimum sample of 30 are suppressed, and lenders are grouped into categories rather than named.
More reports
Reports within Berkshire
Completing a scheme in Berkshire?
Send us the scheme, the current facility and the sales position and we will give a view on the exit options and indicative terms.