Development exit report · Q3 2026

London Development Exit Report, Q3 2026

Who is lending to developers in 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.

2,073
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (+14.7%)
693
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
60.7%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
4,975
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-10.5%)
Published by DevExit Data updated November 2026
In short

In London, development loans filed as repaid rose 15.9% to 693, the sharpest change of any signal we track for the capital. Next largest, new development lending rose 14.7% to 2,073 charges. Of the 9,191 development charges still live in London at 30 September, 60.7% had been running for more than 24 months. Planners approved 4,768 residential schemes in the last year in the councils we scrape (97% of the capital), the next wave of exits.

Scorecard

London at a glance

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

SignalLondonChangeBasisDirection
New development charges2,073+14.7%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeUp
Development charges satisfied (exits filed)693+15.9%12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months beforeUp
Exit-type lending to developers802+0.1%bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companiesFlat
Live development book over 24 months old60.7%-0.6 ptsat 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and WalesIn line
New-build sales registered4,975-10.5%settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months beforeDown
New developer and property companies19,866-0.4%SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register onlyFlat
Companies House · development lending

Development lending and exits in London

Over the 12 months to 30 September 2026, 1,181 development companies in London gave security to development lenders, 2,073 charges in all. The year before it was 1,808 (+14.7%).

Repayments ran at 693 over the same 12 months: 0.33 repayments per new loan (England and Wales: 0.41). Lending is outrunning exits.

Typical loan life on repayment: 26.7 months at the median, shorter than the 29.7 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.

London: development charges registered and satisfied by quarter, 2022 Q1 to 2026 Q3
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
0200400600800New development charges, 2022 Q1: 253Satisfied, 2022 Q1: 1052022New development charges, 2022 Q2: 244Satisfied, 2022 Q2: 67New development charges, 2022 Q3: 357Satisfied, 2022 Q3: 95New development charges, 2022 Q4: 336Satisfied, 2022 Q4: 112New development charges, 2023 Q1: 269Satisfied, 2023 Q1: 1122023New development charges, 2023 Q2: 292Satisfied, 2023 Q2: 97New development charges, 2023 Q3: 302Satisfied, 2023 Q3: 125New development charges, 2023 Q4: 364Satisfied, 2023 Q4: 118New development charges, 2024 Q1: 350Satisfied, 2024 Q1: 1312024New development charges, 2024 Q2: 373Satisfied, 2024 Q2: 175New development charges, 2024 Q3: 477Satisfied, 2024 Q3: 155New development charges, 2024 Q4: 420Satisfied, 2024 Q4: 144New development charges, 2025 Q1: 441Satisfied, 2025 Q1: 1702025New development charges, 2025 Q2: 466Satisfied, 2025 Q2: 124New development charges, 2025 Q3: 481Satisfied, 2025 Q3: 160New development charges, 2025 Q4: 526Satisfied, 2025 Q4: 128New development charges, 2026 Q1: 541Satisfied, 2026 Q1: 1762026New development charges, 2026 Q2: 500Satisfied, 2026 Q2: 205New development charges, 2026 Q3: 506Satisfied, 2026 Q3: 184

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · exit-type lending

Bridging and specialist lending to London developers

London saw 802 exit-type charges registered against development companies in the 12 months to September 2026, against 801 a year earlier (+0.1%).

By lender type, specialist and challenger banks led with 414. Q3 2026 on its own: 171 (Q3 2025: 192).

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.

London: exit-type lending to developers bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies, rolling four quarters
02505007501,0002022 Q42023 Q42024 Q42025 Q42026 Q3Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2022 Q4: 710Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q1: 704Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q2: 713Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q3: 703Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q4: 724Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q1: 718Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q2: 739Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q3: 759Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q4: 777Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q1: 801Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q2: 839Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q3: 801Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q4: 818Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q1: 849Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q2: 823Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q3: 802Charges 802

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · lender categories

Who is lending in London

Specialist money (bridging, specialist banks, development lenders and funds) accounted for 88.5% of matched property charges in London, compared with 87.5% for England and Wales. Little different from the national picture.

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
LondonLondon, Specialist and challenger banks: 56.5%57%London, Bridging lenders: 31.6%32%London, High-street banks: 11.4%11%London, Development lenders, funds and other: 0.4%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

New-build completions registered in London came to 4,975 over the latest settled year (to September 2025), down 10.5% from 5,560. That is 5.5% of the market, against a national 8.1%.

New-build flats sold at a median £572,000, 30.9% above existing flats; new-build houses at £772,500, 23.6% above existing houses.

Across the whole market, 72,508 homes changed hands in the 12 months to April 2026, down 25.3% 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.

London: new-build sales registered by half-year; faded bars sit inside the registration lag and will rise
02,0004,0006,0008,000New-build sales, 2022 H1: 5,5992022 H1New-build sales, 2022 H2: 6,6412022 H2New-build sales, 2023 H1: 4,1612023 H1New-build sales, 2023 H2: 2,8412023 H2New-build sales, 2024 H1: 2,8122024 H1New-build sales, 2024 H2: 2,7512024 H2New-build sales, 2025 H1: 2,6422025 H1New-build sales, 2025 H2: 1,500 (censored by registration lag)2025 H2New-build sales, 2026 H1: 124 (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

The approved pipeline in London: 4,768 residential consents in the latest 12-month window (1,335 new build, 1,011 conversion, 827 hmo), plus 2,381 pending.

Where an approval states units (3,458 of them), they add up to at least 37,374 homes.

Not yet covered: City Of London.

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 N4 1qw3,083outline2025-10-21
Near Se2 9ff1,950outline2026-02-25
1,950outline2025-12-23
Near Da17 6ab1,250outline2026-06-19
Near Nw2 1es1,049reserved matters2025-09-15
Companies House · registrations

New developer companies

19,866 new development and property companies registered in London in the year to September 2026 (-0.4%), 7,796 of them as developers.

Q3 2026 brought 4,756 against 5,284 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

London against England and Wales

MeasureLondonChangeEngland and WalesChange
New development charges, 12 months2,073+14.7%9,562+11.3%
Development charges satisfied, 12 months693+15.9%3,908+21.2%
Live development book at 30 September 20269,19142,944
Share of live book over 24 months old60.7%61.3%
Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months802+0.1%5,002-0.4%
New-build sales, settled 12 months4,975-10.5%67,091-7.1%
New-build share of sales, settled 12 months5.5%8.1%
New developer and property companies, 12 months19,866-0.4%58,644-5.1%
What it means

What this means for developers exiting in London

Reading the signals as a set: new development lending, loan repayments are up, while new-build sales is down.

Nothing unusual in the age of local loans, so each scheme's sales evidence will decide whether exit finance helps.

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 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 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: Barking And Dagenham, Barnet, Bexley, Brent, Bromley, Camden, City Of London, City Of Westminster, Croydon, Ealing, Enfield, Greenwich, Hackney, Hammersmith And Fulham, Haringey, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Hounslow, Islington, Kensington And Chelsea, Kingston Upon Thames, Lambeth, Lewisham, Merton, Newham, Redbridge, Richmond Upon Thames, Southwark, Sutton, Tower Hamlets, Waltham Forest, Wandsworth (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 7 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 London: common questions

How many developers borrowed in London last year?

1,181 development companies registered 2,073 charges to development lenders in the 12 months to September 2026, and 693 development loans were filed as repaid over the same period.

How many London schemes are past a normal development term?

Measured by charge age, 60.7% of the live development book in London was older than 24 months at 30 September 2026. The national figure was 61.3%.

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 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.