124
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (+21.6%)
Development exit report · Q3 2026
Leeds Development Exit Report, Q3 2026
Who is lending to developers in Leeds, 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.
63
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
64.9%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
667
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-26.1%)
In short
Start with this: in the 12 months to September 2026, registered new-build sales slipped 26.1% to 667 over the latest settled year across Leeds. Meanwhile new development lending grew 21.6% to 124 charges. Loan age matters for exits: 64.9% of Leeds's live development charges passed the two-year mark by September 2026 (national 61.3%). On the planning side, 250 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window.
Scorecard
Leeds at a glance
How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.
| Signal | Leeds | Change | Basis | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges | 124 | +21.6% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Up |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 63 | -1.6% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Flat |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 63 | +12.5% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Up |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 64.9% | +3.6 pts | at 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and Wales | Above national |
| New-build sales registered | 667 | -26.1% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Down |
| New developer and property companies | 719 | -9.9% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Down |
Companies House · development lending
Development lending and exits in Leeds
The register shows 124 new development charges in Leeds across the 12 months to September 2026, up 21.6% on the prior 12 months, spread over 75 borrowers.
On the other side of the ledger, 63 development loans were filed as repaid, 0.51 for every new charge against 0.41 nationally. The local book is clearing at least as fast as the national one.
Loans repaid over the year had been outstanding for a median 30.2 months (28.2 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. A quarter-end is provisional until 30 days after the data cut-off, because filings arrive late.
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · exit-type lending
Bridging and specialist lending to Leeds developers
The exit and refinance market in Leeds registered 63 charges on development companies over the latest year, up 12.5% from 56.
By lender type, specialist and challenger banks led with 37. Q3 2026 on its own: 8 (Q3 2025: 9).
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 Leeds
Specialist money (bridging, specialist banks, development lenders and funds) accounted for 87.2% of matched property charges in Leeds, compared with 87.5% for England and Wales. That is close to the national mix.
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
New-build completions registered in Leeds came to 667 over the latest settled year (to September 2025), down 26.1% from 902. That is 6.2% of the market, against a national 8.1%.
Buyers paid 84.9% more for a new flat than a second-hand one, and 47.3% 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: 9,419 (-14.7%).
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
The approved pipeline in Leeds: 250 residential consents in the latest 12-month window (61 change of use, 53 new build, 40 conversion), plus 119 pending.
At least 3,432 homes are consented, counting only the 192 approvals that state a number.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near Ls11 9te | 541 | reserved matters | 2026-09-08 |
| 371 | new build | 2025-11-12 | |
| Near Ls14 2hn | 357 | reserved matters | 2025-12-19 |
| Near Ls17 8nb | 352 | new build | 2026-08-21 |
| Near Ls14 2ff | 324 | reserved matters | 2026-07-31 |
Companies House · registrations
New developer companies
719 new development and property companies registered in Leeds in the year to September 2026 (-9.9%), 240 of them as developers.
Q3 2026 brought 172 against 207 in Q3 2025.
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
Leeds against England and Wales
| Measure | Leeds | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 124 | +21.6% | 9,562 | +11.3% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 63 | -1.6% | 3,908 | +21.2% |
| Live development book at 30 September 2026 | 570 | 42,944 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 64.9% | 61.3% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 63 | +12.5% | 5,002 | -0.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 667 | -26.1% | 67,091 | -7.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 6.2% | 8.1% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 719 | -9.9% | 58,644 | -5.1% |
What it means
What this means for developers exiting in Leeds
Up: new development lending, exit-type lending. Down: new-build sales, new companies.
Ageing loans mean pressure from development lenders to repay. Refinancing onto exit finance before a facility expires usually costs less than negotiating an extension.
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 Leeds 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: Leeds (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 10 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 Leeds: common questions
How much development lending is there in Leeds?
Development lenders registered 124 new charges in Leeds in the 12 months to September 2026 (+21.6% on the year before), taken by 75 companies. It counts loans taken, not their value.
How old are development loans in Leeds?
64.9% of the 570 development charges live in Leeds 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.
More reports
Other reports in Yorkshire and The Humber
Completing a scheme in Leeds?
Send us the scheme, the current facility and the sales position and we will give a view on the exit options and indicative terms.