Development exit report · H1 2026

City of London Development Exit Report, H1 2026

Who is lending to developers in City of London, 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.

12
New development charges, 12 months to June 2026 (0%)
15
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
79.6%
Live development book over 24 months old (60.6% nationally)
18
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-71.9%)
Matt Lenzie
Written and reviewed by Matt Lenzie Founder & Principal Broker · 25 years arranging development finance · Reviewed September 2026
In short

City of London's headline number is a change in direction: registered new-build sales declined 71.9% to 18 over the latest settled year. Next largest, bridging and specialist lending to development companies declined 25% to 15 charges. 79.6% of live development loans here were over 24 months old at the end of June, 19 points above the national share, a direct read on how many schemes are past a normal build term. On the planning side, 197 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window.

City of London is a small market on the charge register (fewer than 30 new development charges in the year), so percentages built on those charges are suppressed. The counts are published as they stand.

Scorecard

City of London at a glance

How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.

SignalCity of LondonChangeBasisDirection
New development charges120%12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months beforeFlat
Development charges satisfied (exits filed)15n/a12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before; recent filings provisionalNot published
Exit-type lending to developers15-25%bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companiesDown
Live development book over 24 months old79.6%+19 ptsat 30 June 2026, compared with 60.6% across England and WalesAbove national
New-build sales registered18-71.9%settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months beforeDown
New developer and property companies133-20.4%SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register onlyDown
Companies House · development lending

Development lending and exits in City of London

9 borrowers, 12 charges: that is the scale of new development lending in City of London in the year to June 2026, compared with 12 charges a year earlier.

On the other side of the ledger, 15 development loans were filed as repaid. The sample is too small to express as a ratio.

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.

City of London: development charges registered and satisfied by quarter, 2022 Q1 to 2026 Q2; faded bars are provisional because repayments are filed late
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
05101520New development charges, 2022 Q1: 0Satisfied, 2022 Q1: 162022New development charges, 2022 Q2: 4Satisfied, 2022 Q2: 0New development charges, 2022 Q3: 3Satisfied, 2022 Q3: 1New development charges, 2022 Q4: 4Satisfied, 2022 Q4: 0New development charges, 2023 Q1: 3Satisfied, 2023 Q1: 22023New development charges, 2023 Q2: 5Satisfied, 2023 Q2: 0New development charges, 2023 Q3: 11Satisfied, 2023 Q3: 7New development charges, 2023 Q4: 1Satisfied, 2023 Q4: 0New development charges, 2024 Q1: 1Satisfied, 2024 Q1: 32024New development charges, 2024 Q2: 2Satisfied, 2024 Q2: 3New development charges, 2024 Q3: 4Satisfied, 2024 Q3: 2New development charges, 2024 Q4: 2Satisfied, 2024 Q4: 0New development charges, 2025 Q1: 3Satisfied, 2025 Q1: 02025New development charges, 2025 Q2: 3Satisfied, 2025 Q2: 2New development charges, 2025 Q3: 5Satisfied, 2025 Q3: 1New development charges, 2025 Q4: 3Satisfied, 2025 Q4: 2New development charges, 2026 Q1: 0 (censored by registration lag)Satisfied, 2026 Q1: 10 (censored by registration lag)2026New development charges, 2026 Q2: 4 (censored by registration lag)Satisfied, 2026 Q2: 2 (censored by registration lag)

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · exit-type lending

Bridging and specialist lending to City of London developers

City of London saw 15 exit-type charges registered against development companies in the 12 months to June 2026, against 20 a year earlier (-25%).

Bridging lenders held the largest number, 8. The first half of 2026 alone brought 6, against 10 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.

City of London: exit-type lending to developers bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies, rolling four quarters
051015202022 Q42023 Q42024 Q42026 Q2Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2022 Q4: 10Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q1: 11Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q2: 7Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q3: 13Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q4: 14Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q1: 12Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q2: 14Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q3: 9Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q4: 12Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q1: 15Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q2: 20Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q3: 19Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q4: 19Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q1: 16Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q2: 15Charges 15

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · lender categories

Who is lending in City of London

Specialist money (bridging, specialist banks, development lenders and funds) accounted for 46.0% of matched property charges in City of London, compared with 88.4% for England and Wales. Specialists are 42 points less prominent than nationally.

Lenders are grouped by category from the Construction Capital lender register and never named.

Who holds the charges: lender categories share of register-matched property charges, 12 months to June 2026
Specialist and challenger banksBridging lendersHigh-street banksDevelopment lenders, funds and other
CityCity, Specialist and challenger banks: 38.0%38%City, Bridging lenders: 8.0%8%City, High-street banks: 54.0%54%E and WE and W, Specialist and challenger banks: 60.5%61%E and W, Bridging lenders: 27.5%28%E and W, High-street banks: 11.5%12%E and W, Development lenders, funds and other: 0.5%

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Land Registry · sales

How quickly new homes are selling

New-build completions registered in City of London came to 18 over the latest settled year (to July 2025), down 71.9% from 64. That is 9.9% of the market, against a national 8.3%.

Too few new-build sales of each type to publish a price premium.

Across the whole market, 156 homes changed hands in the 12 months to January 2026, down 29.1% on the year before.

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.

City of London: new-build sales registered by half-year; faded bars sit inside the registration lag and will rise
020406080New-build sales, 2022 H1: 172022 H1New-build sales, 2022 H2: 132022 H2New-build sales, 2023 H1: 62023 H1New-build sales, 2023 H2: 82023 H2New-build sales, 2024 H1: 552024 H1New-build sales, 2024 H2: 132024 H2New-build sales, 2025 H1: 62025 H1New-build sales, 2025 H2: 3 (censored by registration lag)2025 H2New-build sales, 2026 H1: 0 (censored by registration lag)2026 H1

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Construction Capital analysis

Planning · pipeline

The next wave of schemes needing an exit

Between 20 September 2025 and 20 September 2026, 197 residential applications were approved (155 other relevant, 19 new build, 11 conversion) and 37 awaited a decision.

Stated unit counts total 171 homes across 14 approvals, a floor rather than the full figure.

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)UnitsTypeDecided
Vorley Road Bus Stand & 4 Vorley Road, London N19 5jh79new build2025-10-28
Site Bounded By Worship Street, Curtain Road, Scrutton Street And Holywell Row Ec2a78new build2025-11-17
Companies House · registrations

New developer companies

New single-purpose companies are where most schemes start. City of London added 133 in the year to June 2026, down 20.4% on the prior year, 38 of them developers.

Half-year to half-year: 74 in the first half of 2026, 81 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

City of London against England and Wales

MeasureCity of LondonChangeEngland and WalesChange
New development charges, 12 months120%9,544+11.7%
Development charges satisfied, 12 months15n/a3,785+21.1%
Live development book at 30 June 20269341,855
Share of live book over 24 months old79.6%60.6%
Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months15-25%5,241+3.4%
New-build sales, settled 12 months18-71.9%68,506-6.1%
New-build share of sales, settled 12 months9.9%8.3%
New developer and property companies, 12 months133-20.4%61,275+7%
What it means

What this means for developers exiting in City of London

Up: none. Down: exit-type lending, new-build sales, new companies.

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.

Fewer new-build sales being registered means stock is taking longer to clear, so a sales-period facility sized to the unsold units is worth pricing early.

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 City of London 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: City Of London (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 35 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 City of London: common questions

How much development lending is there in City of London?

Development lenders registered 12 new charges in City of London in the 12 months to June 2026 (0% on the year before), taken by 9 companies. It counts loans taken, not their value.

How many City of London schemes are past a normal development term?

Measured by charge age, 79.6% of the live development book in City of London was older than 24 months at 30 June 2026. The national figure was 60.6%.

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.

Completing a scheme in City of London?

Send us the scheme, the current facility and the sales position and we will give a view on the exit options and indicative terms.