Development exit report · Q3 2026

Essex Development Exit Report, Q3 2026

Who is lending to developers in Essex, 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.

290
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (-4%)
108
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
65.2%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
2,493
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (+6.4%)
Published by DevExit Data updated November 2026
In short

In Essex, bridging and specialist lending to development companies fell 28% to 126 charges, the sharpest change of any signal we track for the county. Next largest, development loans filed as repaid fell 10.7% to 108. Of the 1,576 development charges still live in Essex at 30 September, 65.2% had been running for more than 24 months, more than the national average. On the planning side, 1,034 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window across the 71% of the county we cover.

Scorecard

Essex at a glance

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

SignalEssexChangeBasisDirection
New development charges290-4%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeFlat
Development charges satisfied (exits filed)108-10.7%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeDown
Exit-type lending to developers126-28%bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companiesDown
Live development book over 24 months old65.2%+3.9 ptsat 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and WalesAbove national
New-build sales registered2,493+6.4%settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months beforeUp
New developer and property companies1,938+0.3%SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register onlyFlat
Companies House · development lending

Development lending and exits in Essex

182 borrowers, 290 charges: that is the scale of new development lending in Essex in the year to September 2026, compared with 302 charges a year earlier.

On the other side of the ledger, 108 development loans were filed as repaid, 0.37 for every new charge against 0.41 nationally. The local book is still growing faster than it clears.

Typical loan life on repayment: 26.5 months at the median, longer than the 23.7 months of the prior year.

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. A quarter-end is provisional until 30 days after the data cut-off, because filings arrive late.

Essex: development charges registered and satisfied by quarter, 2022 Q1 to 2026 Q3
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
0255075100New development charges, 2022 Q1: 50Satisfied, 2022 Q1: 232022New development charges, 2022 Q2: 65Satisfied, 2022 Q2: 10New development charges, 2022 Q3: 42Satisfied, 2022 Q3: 9New development charges, 2022 Q4: 77Satisfied, 2022 Q4: 22New development charges, 2023 Q1: 73Satisfied, 2023 Q1: 162023New development charges, 2023 Q2: 57Satisfied, 2023 Q2: 15New development charges, 2023 Q3: 68Satisfied, 2023 Q3: 20New development charges, 2023 Q4: 47Satisfied, 2023 Q4: 22New development charges, 2024 Q1: 67Satisfied, 2024 Q1: 182024New development charges, 2024 Q2: 65Satisfied, 2024 Q2: 37New development charges, 2024 Q3: 80Satisfied, 2024 Q3: 21New development charges, 2024 Q4: 99Satisfied, 2024 Q4: 30New development charges, 2025 Q1: 62Satisfied, 2025 Q1: 382025New development charges, 2025 Q2: 64Satisfied, 2025 Q2: 29New development charges, 2025 Q3: 77Satisfied, 2025 Q3: 24New development charges, 2025 Q4: 65Satisfied, 2025 Q4: 28New development charges, 2026 Q1: 72Satisfied, 2026 Q1: 342026New development charges, 2026 Q2: 84Satisfied, 2026 Q2: 26New development charges, 2026 Q3: 69Satisfied, 2026 Q3: 20

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · exit-type lending

Bridging and specialist lending to Essex developers

Essex saw 126 exit-type charges registered against development companies in the 12 months to September 2026, against 175 a year earlier (-28%).

By lender type, specialist and challenger banks led with 65. Q3 2026 on its own: 28 (Q3 2025: 38).

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.

Essex: exit-type lending to developers bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies, rolling four quarters
0501001502002022 Q42023 Q42024 Q42025 Q42026 Q3Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2022 Q4: 159Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q1: 168Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q2: 162Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q3: 176Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q4: 164Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q1: 150Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q2: 154Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q3: 172Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q4: 196Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q1: 198Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q2: 195Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q3: 175Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q4: 159Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q1: 145Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q2: 136Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q3: 126Charges 126

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · lender categories

Who is lending in Essex

Specialist money (bridging, specialist banks, development lenders and funds) accounted for 86.5% of matched property charges in Essex, compared with 87.5% for England and Wales. The local market leans on specialist capital about as much as the country does.

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 September 2026
Specialist and challenger banksBridging lendersHigh-street banksDevelopment lenders, funds and other
EssexEssex, Specialist and challenger banks: 57.8%58%Essex, Bridging lenders: 28.3%28%Essex, High-street banks: 13.3%13%Essex, Development lenders, funds and other: 0.6%E and WE and W, Specialist and challenger banks: 60.0%60%E and W, Bridging lenders: 27.1%27%E and W, High-street banks: 12.5%13%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

Essex recorded 2,493 new-build sales in the settled 12 months to September 2025, against 2,342 the year before (+6.4%). A new-build share of 8.6%; England and Wales ran at 8.1%.

Buyers paid 57.1% more for a new flat than a second-hand one, and 20.5% more for a new house, on median prices.

All residential sales totalled 24,989 in the settled 12 months to April 2026 (-15.7% 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.

Essex: new-build sales registered by half-year; faded bars sit inside the registration lag and will rise
01,0002,0003,0004,000New-build sales, 2022 H1: 1,9992022 H1New-build sales, 2022 H2: 2,1192022 H2New-build sales, 2023 H1: 1,2652023 H1New-build sales, 2023 H2: 1,2402023 H2New-build sales, 2024 H1: 1,1272024 H1New-build sales, 2024 H2: 1,2862024 H2New-build sales, 2025 H1: 1,2112025 H1New-build sales, 2025 H2: 935 (censored by registration lag)2025 H2New-build sales, 2026 H1: 32 (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 1 July 2025 and 30 September 2026, 1,034 residential applications were approved (374 new build, 104 prior approval, 102 conversion) and 526 awaited a decision.

At least 14,126 homes are consented, counting only the 879 approvals that state a number.

Not yet covered: Epping Forest, Maldon, Rochford, Uttlesford.

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
Near Cm13 3td3,700outline2026-06-16
557change of use2025-09-25
Near Co3 8pe526reserved matters2026-06-05
Near Cm3 3pw512outline2025-07-31
Near Cm12 9hx480outline2026-04-10
Companies House · registrations

New developer companies

New single-purpose companies are where most schemes start. Essex added 1,938 in the year to September 2026, up 0.3% on the prior year, 867 of them developers.

There were 440 in the quarter, against 527 in the same months of the previous year.

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

Essex against England and Wales

MeasureEssexChangeEngland and WalesChange
New development charges, 12 months290-4%9,562+11.3%
Development charges satisfied, 12 months108-10.7%3,908+21.2%
Live development book at 30 September 20261,57642,944
Share of live book over 24 months old65.2%61.3%
Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months126-28%5,002-0.4%
New-build sales, settled 12 months2,493+6.4%67,091-7.1%
New-build share of sales, settled 12 months8.6%8.1%
New developer and property companies, 12 months1,938+0.3%58,644-5.1%
What it means

What this means for developers exiting in Essex

1 signal rose in Essex (new-build sales) and 2 fell (loan repayments, exit-type lending).

With more of the local book past 24 months than nationally, more schemes here are likely to be completing late or selling slowly. That is where a development exit loan earns its keep: it repays the development lender, stops default interest and gives the sales period room.

Rising new-build sales give lenders comfort on sales rates, which usually means better exit terms.

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 Essex 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 a quarter-end stays provisional until 30 days after the data cut-off. 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 2026-10-30, satisfactions filed to 2026-11-02, company register snapshot 2026-11-01, Land Registry transactions to 2026-09-30. Area covered: Basildon, Braintree, Brentwood, Castle Point, Chelmsford, Colchester, Epping Forest, Harlow, Maldon, Rochford, Tendring, Uttlesford, Southend-On-Sea, Thurrock (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 Essex: common questions

How much development lending is there in Essex?

Development lenders registered 290 new charges in Essex in the 12 months to September 2026 (-4% on the year before), taken by 182 companies. It counts loans taken, not their value.

Are development schemes in Essex overrunning?

At 30 September 2026, 65.2% of live development charges in Essex were over 24 months old (England and Wales: 61.3%). 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.

Completing a scheme in Essex?

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