London Development Exit Report, H1 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.
London's headline number is a change in direction: new development lending rose 13.2% to 2,057 charges. Behind it, development loans filed as repaid rose 12.7% to 673. Of the 8,931 development charges still live in London at 30 June, 59.9% had been running for more than 24 months. 6,978 residential approvals over the latest 12 months (partial coverage, 67%) set up the pipeline that will need refinancing next.
London at a glance
How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.
| Signal | London | Change | Basis | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges | 2,057 | +13.2% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before | Up |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 673 | +12.7% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before; recent filings provisional | Up |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 835 | -0.9% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Flat |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 59.9% | -0.7 pts | at 30 June 2026, compared with 60.6% across England and Wales | In line |
| New-build sales registered | 5,172 | -7.3% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Down |
| New developer and property companies | 20,478 | +10.6% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Up |
Development lending and exits in London
Over the 12 months to 30 June 2026, 1,219 development companies in London gave security to development lenders, 2,057 charges in all. The year before it was 1,817 (+13.2%).
On the other side of the ledger, 673 development loans were filed as repaid: 0.33 repayments per new loan (England and Wales: 0.4). Lending is outrunning exits.
Loans repaid over the year had been outstanding for a median 25.1 months (26.4 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. Repayments are filed late, so the latest six months are provisional.
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Bridging and specialist lending to London developers
London saw 835 exit-type charges registered against development companies in the 12 months to June 2026, against 843 a year earlier (-0.9%).
By lender type, specialist and challenger banks led with 424. H1 2026 on its own: 421 (H1 2025: 401).
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
Who is lending in London
Specialist money (bridging, specialist banks, development lenders and funds) accounted for 89.6% of matched property charges in London, compared with 88.4% 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.
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
How quickly new homes are selling
The settled Land Registry year to July 2025 shows 5,172 new homes sold in London, compared with 5,582 in the year before. That is 5.7% of the market, against a national 8.3%.
Buyers paid 29.2% more for a new flat than a second-hand one, and 28% more for a new house, on median prices.
Across the whole market, 83,921 homes changed hands in the 12 months to January 2026, down 0.2% 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.
HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, Construction Capital analysis
The next wave of schemes needing an exit
Between 9 August 2025 and 21 September 2026, 6,978 residential applications were approved (3,901 other relevant, 817 conversion, 724 change of use) and 3,067 awaited a decision.
Where an approval states units (1,591 of them), they add up to at least 7,858 homes.
Not yet covered: Barking And Dagenham, Camden, Hackney, Harrow, Havering, Hillingdon, Islington, Kensington And Chelsea, Merton, Richmond Upon Thames, Waltham Forest.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Regina Road Estate Regina Road And Sunny Bank South Norwood London Se25 4tt | 340 | new build | 2026-01-12 |
| 1, 3-11 Wellfit Street, 7-9 Hinton Road & Units 1-4 Hardess Street London Se24 0hn | 320 | mixed use | |
| Skipton House 80 London Road London Southwark Se1 6lh | 243 | other residential | 2026-09-08 |
| 26-52 Whytecliffe Road South And Purley Station Car Park Purley Cr8 2aw | 238 | demolition rebuild | 2026-05-22 |
| Land Rear Of 13 To 73 Stafford Road Duppas Hill Road Croydon | 211 | new build | 2026-02-10 |
New developer companies
New single-purpose companies are where most schemes start. London added 20,478 in the year to June 2026, up 10.6% on the prior year, 7,737 of them developers.
The first six months of 2026 saw 10,388 (10,807 in the same months of 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.
London against England and Wales
| Measure | London | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 2,057 | +13.2% | 9,544 | +11.7% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 673 | +12.7% | 3,785 | +21.1% |
| Live development book at 30 June 2026 | 8,931 | 41,855 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 59.9% | 60.6% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 835 | -0.9% | 5,241 | +3.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 5,172 | -7.3% | 68,506 | -6.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 5.7% | 8.3% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 20,478 | +10.6% | 61,275 | +7% |
What this means for developers exiting in London
Reading the signals as a set: new development lending, loan repayments, new companies 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 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: 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. 5 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.
Development exit in London: common questions
How many developers borrowed in London last year?
1,219 development companies registered 2,057 charges to development lenders in the 12 months to June 2026, and 673 development loans were filed as repaid over the same period.
How many London schemes are past a normal development term?
Measured by charge age, 59.9% of the live development book in 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.
Reports within London
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.