Development exit report · H1 2026

Southampton Development Exit Report, H1 2026

Who is lending to developers in Southampton, 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.

43
New development charges, 12 months to June 2026 (+115%)
26
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
62.4%
Live development book over 24 months old (60.6% nationally)
48
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-33.3%)
Matt Lenzie
Written and reviewed by Matt Lenzie Founder & Principal Broker · 25 years arranging development finance · Reviewed September 2026
In short

In Southampton, new development lending rose 115% to 43 charges, the sharpest change of any signal we track for the city. Behind it, registered new-build sales fell 33.3% to 48 over the latest settled year. Of the 157 development charges still live in Southampton at 30 June, 62.4% had been running for more than 24 months. On the planning side, 353 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window.

Scorecard

Southampton at a glance

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

SignalSouthamptonChangeBasisDirection
New development charges43+115%12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months beforeUp
Development charges satisfied (exits filed)26n/a12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before; recent filings provisionalNot published
Exit-type lending to developers20n/abridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companiesNot published
Live development book over 24 months old62.4%+1.8 ptsat 30 June 2026, compared with 60.6% across England and WalesIn line
New-build sales registered48-33.3%settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months beforeDown
New developer and property companies208+14.3%SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register onlyUp
Companies House · development lending

Development lending and exits in Southampton

Over the 12 months to 30 June 2026, 20 development companies in Southampton gave security to development lenders, 43 charges in all. The year before it was 20 (+115%).

Repayments ran at 26 over the same 12 months, 0.6 for every new charge against 0.4 nationally. The local book is clearing at least as fast as the national one.

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.

Southampton: development charges registered and satisfied by quarter, 2022 Q1 to 2026 Q2; faded bars are provisional because repayments are filed late
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
010203040New development charges, 2022 Q1: 6Satisfied, 2022 Q1: 62022New development charges, 2022 Q2: 8Satisfied, 2022 Q2: 1New development charges, 2022 Q3: 3Satisfied, 2022 Q3: 3New development charges, 2022 Q4: 5Satisfied, 2022 Q4: 1New development charges, 2023 Q1: 3Satisfied, 2023 Q1: 32023New development charges, 2023 Q2: 2Satisfied, 2023 Q2: 3New development charges, 2023 Q3: 21Satisfied, 2023 Q3: 3New development charges, 2023 Q4: 7Satisfied, 2023 Q4: 4New development charges, 2024 Q1: 6Satisfied, 2024 Q1: 02024New development charges, 2024 Q2: 5Satisfied, 2024 Q2: 4New development charges, 2024 Q3: 11Satisfied, 2024 Q3: 1New development charges, 2024 Q4: 2Satisfied, 2024 Q4: 3New development charges, 2025 Q1: 3Satisfied, 2025 Q1: 12025New development charges, 2025 Q2: 4Satisfied, 2025 Q2: 0New development charges, 2025 Q3: 9Satisfied, 2025 Q3: 10New development charges, 2025 Q4: 6Satisfied, 2025 Q4: 4New development charges, 2026 Q1: 14 (censored by registration lag)Satisfied, 2026 Q1: 4 (censored by registration lag)2026New development charges, 2026 Q2: 14 (censored by registration lag)Satisfied, 2026 Q2: 8 (censored by registration lag)

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · exit-type lending

Bridging and specialist lending to Southampton developers

The exit and refinance market in Southampton registered 20 charges on development companies over the latest year, from 7.

Most came from bridging lenders (12). Comparing half-years, 6 in H1 2026 against 4 in H1 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.

Southampton: exit-type lending to developers bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies, rolling four quarters
051015202022 Q42023 Q42024 Q42026 Q2Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2022 Q4: 10Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q1: 9Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q2: 4Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q3: 6Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2023 Q4: 10Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q1: 9Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q2: 8Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q3: 6Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2024 Q4: 3Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q1: 6Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q2: 7Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q3: 15Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2025 Q4: 18Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q1: 19Exit-type charges, rolling 4Q, 2026 Q2: 20Charges 20

Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis

Companies House · lender categories

Who is lending in Southampton

Across all 647 charges registered against property in Southampton over the year, specialist lenders held 86.6% of those we can match to a lender type, against 88.4% nationally. 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 June 2026
Specialist and challenger banksBridging lendersHigh-street banksDevelopment lenders, funds and other
SouthamptonSouthampton, Specialist and challenger banks: 64.3%64%Southampton, Bridging lenders: 22.3%22%Southampton, High-street banks: 13.4%13%E and WE and W, Specialist and challenger banks: 60.5%61%E and W, Bridging lenders: 27.5%28%E and W, High-street banks: 11.5%12%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

Southampton recorded 48 new-build sales in the settled 12 months to July 2025, against 72 the year before (-33.3%). That is 1.8% of the market, against a national 8.3%.

Too few new-build sales of each type to publish a price premium.

Across the whole market, 2,716 homes changed hands in the 12 months to January 2026, up 5.4% 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.

Southampton: new-build sales registered by half-year; faded bars sit inside the registration lag and will rise
020406080New-build sales, 2022 H1: 572022 H1New-build sales, 2022 H2: 52022 H2New-build sales, 2023 H1: 402023 H1New-build sales, 2023 H2: 332023 H2New-build sales, 2024 H1: 362024 H1New-build sales, 2024 H2: 322024 H2New-build sales, 2025 H1: 162025 H1New-build sales, 2025 H2: 11 (censored by registration lag)2025 H2New-build sales, 2026 H1: 0 (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 20 September 2025 and 20 September 2026, 353 residential applications were approved (168 other relevant, 77 change of use, 49 conversion) and 112 awaited a decision.

At least 472 homes are consented, counting only the 76 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.

Companies House · registrations

New developer companies

208 new development and property companies registered in Southampton in the year to June 2026 (+14.3%), 93 of them as developers.

H1 2026 brought 101 against 103 in H1 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

Southampton against England and Wales

MeasureSouthamptonChangeEngland and WalesChange
New development charges, 12 months43+115%9,544+11.7%
Development charges satisfied, 12 months26n/a3,785+21.1%
Live development book at 30 June 202615741,855
Share of live book over 24 months old62.4%60.6%
Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months20n/a5,241+3.4%
New-build sales, settled 12 months48-33.3%68,506-6.1%
New-build share of sales, settled 12 months1.8%8.3%
New developer and property companies, 12 months208+14.3%61,275+7%
What it means

What this means for developers exiting in Southampton

2 signals rose in Southampton (new development lending, new companies) and 1 fell (new-build sales).

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 Southampton 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: Southampton (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 23 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 Southampton: common questions

Is development lending rising in Southampton?

Yes: 43 new development charges in the year to June 2026, +115% on the previous 12 months, according to the Companies House charge register.

How old are development loans in Southampton?

62.4% of the 157 development charges live in Southampton at the end of June 2026 had been in place for over two years, against 60.6% 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 Southampton?

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