Development exit report · Q3 2026

Kent Development Exit Report, Q3 2026

Who is lending to developers in Kent, 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.

325
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (-4.7%)
121
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
56.4%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
2,142
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-18.6%)
Published by DevExit Data updated November 2026
In short

Kent's headline number is a change in direction: registered new-build sales declined 18.6% to 2,142 over the latest settled year. Behind it, bridging and specialist lending to development companies increased 17.5% to 215 charges. 56.4% of live development loans here were over 24 months old at the end of September, 4.9 points below the national share, a direct read on how many schemes are past a normal build term. On the planning side, 1,388 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window across the 92% of the county we cover.

Scorecard

Kent at a glance

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

SignalKentChangeBasisDirection
New development charges325-4.7%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeFlat
Development charges satisfied (exits filed)121+8%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeUp
Exit-type lending to developers215+17.5%bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companiesUp
Live development book over 24 months old56.4%-4.9 ptsat 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and WalesBelow national
New-build sales registered2,142-18.6%settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months beforeDown
New developer and property companies1,612-11.3%SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register onlyDown
Companies House · development lending

Development lending and exits in Kent

185 borrowers, 325 charges: that is the scale of new development lending in Kent in the year to September 2026, compared with 341 charges a year earlier.

Set against that, 121 development charges were satisfied (repaid) in the same year, 0.37 for every new charge against 0.41 nationally. The local book is still growing faster than it clears.

The median development loan repaid in the year ran 27.9 months from registration to repayment, against 21.1 months a year earlier.

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.

Kent: development charges registered and satisfied by quarter, 2022 Q1 to 2026 Q3
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
0255075100New development charges, 2022 Q1: 55Satisfied, 2022 Q1: 172022New development charges, 2022 Q2: 53Satisfied, 2022 Q2: 29New development charges, 2022 Q3: 88Satisfied, 2022 Q3: 31New development charges, 2022 Q4: 54Satisfied, 2022 Q4: 28New development charges, 2023 Q1: 41Satisfied, 2023 Q1: 72023New development charges, 2023 Q2: 46Satisfied, 2023 Q2: 23New development charges, 2023 Q3: 40Satisfied, 2023 Q3: 17New development charges, 2023 Q4: 54Satisfied, 2023 Q4: 22New development charges, 2024 Q1: 66Satisfied, 2024 Q1: 292024New development charges, 2024 Q2: 42Satisfied, 2024 Q2: 22New development charges, 2024 Q3: 60Satisfied, 2024 Q3: 20New development charges, 2024 Q4: 100Satisfied, 2024 Q4: 40New development charges, 2025 Q1: 90Satisfied, 2025 Q1: 212025New development charges, 2025 Q2: 66Satisfied, 2025 Q2: 24New development charges, 2025 Q3: 85Satisfied, 2025 Q3: 27New development charges, 2025 Q4: 98Satisfied, 2025 Q4: 28New development charges, 2026 Q1: 76Satisfied, 2026 Q1: 352026New development charges, 2026 Q2: 77Satisfied, 2026 Q2: 34New development charges, 2026 Q3: 74Satisfied, 2026 Q3: 24

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · exit-type lending

Bridging and specialist lending to Kent developers

Bridging lenders, specialist banks and funds took 215 charges over Kent development companies in the year to September 2026 (+17.5% on the 183 of the year before).

Most came from bridging lenders (117). Comparing the same quarter a year apart, 47 in Q3 2026 against 38 in Q3 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.

Kent: exit-type lending to developers bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies, rolling four quarters
01002003004002022 Q42023 Q42024 Q42025 Q42026 Q3Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2022 Q4: 132Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q1: 122Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q2: 117Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q3: 116Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q4: 124Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q1: 159Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q2: 151Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q3: 163Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q4: 170Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q1: 166Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q2: 189Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q3: 183Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q4: 202Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q1: 205Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q2: 206Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q3: 215Charges 215

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · lender categories

Who is lending in Kent

Of 3,947 property charges in Kent we could match to a lender type, 87.9% sat with specialist lenders (national: 87.5%). That is close to the national mix.

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
KentKent, Specialist and challenger banks: 61.1%61%Kent, Bridging lenders: 26.1%26%Kent, High-street banks: 12.0%12%Kent, Development lenders, funds and other: 0.9%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

Kent recorded 2,142 new-build sales in the settled 12 months to September 2025, against 2,633 the year before (-18.6%). New-build made up 7.7% of all sales (8.1% nationally).

Buyers paid 57.5% more for a new flat than a second-hand one, and 16.4% more for a new house, on median prices.

Total sales, read over the settled year to April 2026 so late registrations do not distort the change: 24,249 (-14.9%).

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.

Kent: 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: 2,0342022 H1New-build sales, 2022 H2: 2,2622022 H2New-build sales, 2023 H1: 1,6752023 H1New-build sales, 2023 H2: 1,4872023 H2New-build sales, 2024 H1: 1,3682024 H1New-build sales, 2024 H2: 1,2012024 H2New-build sales, 2025 H1: 1,0812025 H1New-build sales, 2025 H2: 704 (censored by registration lag)2025 H2New-build sales, 2026 H1: 20 (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, 1,388 residential applications were approved (471 new build, 195 conversion, 169 change of use) and 725 awaited a decision.

Stated unit counts total 12,183 homes across 1,247 approvals, a floor rather than the full figure.

Not yet covered: Swale.

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 Ct7 9ub1,600outline2025-12-23
Near Ct9 4hp1,461outline2026-04-17
Near Me3 8sw760outline2026-07-22
Near Ct12 5ae451reserved matters2025-07-18
Near Ct9 4nj312reserved matters2025-11-28
Companies House · registrations

New developer companies

1,612 new development and property companies registered in Kent in the year to September 2026 (-11.3%), 731 of them as developers.

There were 371 in the quarter, against 464 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

Kent against England and Wales

MeasureKentChangeEngland and WalesChange
New development charges, 12 months325-4.7%9,562+11.3%
Development charges satisfied, 12 months121+8%3,908+21.2%
Live development book at 30 September 20261,42242,944
Share of live book over 24 months old56.4%61.3%
Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months215+17.5%5,002-0.4%
New-build sales, settled 12 months2,142-18.6%67,091-7.1%
New-build share of sales, settled 12 months7.7%8.1%
New developer and property companies, 12 months1,612-11.3%58,644-5.1%
What it means

What this means for developers exiting in Kent

2 signals rose in Kent (loan repayments, exit-type lending) and 2 fell (new-build sales, new companies).

The local book is younger than the national one, pointing to newer schemes and fewer overruns. Here the exit question is about planning the refinance before completion, not rescuing late schemes.

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 Kent 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: Ashford, Canterbury, Dartford, Dover, Folkestone And Hythe, Gravesham, Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Swale, Thanet, Tonbridge And Malling, Tunbridge Wells, Medway (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 Kent: common questions

How many developers borrowed in Kent last year?

185 development companies registered 325 charges to development lenders in the 12 months to September 2026, and 121 development loans were filed as repaid over the same period.

How old are development loans in Kent?

56.4% of the 1,422 development charges live in Kent at the end of September 2026 had been in place for over two years, against 61.3% nationally.

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 Kent?

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