100
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (+69.5%)
Development exit report · Q3 2026
Suffolk Development Exit Report, Q3 2026
Who is lending to developers in Suffolk, 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.
28
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
59.4%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
1,461
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (+12.5%)
In short
Suffolk's headline number is a change in direction: new development lending rose 69.5% to 100 charges. Next largest, development loans filed as repaid rose 47.4% to 28. Of the 350 development charges still live in Suffolk at 30 September, 59.4% had been running for more than 24 months. On the planning side, 412 residential applications were approved in the latest 12-month window across the 60% of the county we cover.
Scorecard
Suffolk at a glance
How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.
| Signal | Suffolk | Change | Basis | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges | 100 | +69.5% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Up |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 28 | +47.4% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Up |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 37 | -19.6% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Down |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 59.4% | -1.9 pts | at 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and Wales | In line |
| New-build sales registered | 1,461 | +12.5% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Up |
| New developer and property companies | 661 | +0.5% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Flat |
Companies House · development lending
Development lending and exits in Suffolk
Over the 12 months to 30 September 2026, 47 development companies in Suffolk gave security to development lenders, 100 charges in all. The year before it was 59 (+69.5%).
On the other side of the ledger, 28 development loans were filed as repaid, 0.28 for every new charge against 0.41 nationally. The local book is still growing faster than it clears.
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 Suffolk developers
The exit and refinance market in Suffolk registered 37 charges on development companies over the latest year, down 19.6% from 46.
Specialist and challenger banks held the largest number, 21. The third quarter of 2026 alone brought 11, against 11 in the same quarter of 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.
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · lender categories
Who is lending in Suffolk
Of 1,284 property charges in Suffolk we could match to a lender type, 85.0% sat with specialist lenders (national: 87.5%). Little different from the national picture.
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
Suffolk recorded 1,461 new-build sales in the settled 12 months to September 2025, against 1,299 the year before (+12.5%). A new-build share of 11.7%; England and Wales ran at 8.1%.
New-build flats sold at a median £229,000, 52.7% above existing flats; new-build houses at £370,000, 27.6% above existing houses.
Total sales, read over the settled year to April 2026 so late registrations do not distort the change: 11,003 (-12.5%).
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
Between 1 July 2025 and 30 September 2026, 412 residential applications were approved (113 new build, 74 conversion, 50 change of use) and 176 awaited a decision.
At least 4,823 homes are consented, counting only the 378 approvals that state a number.
Not yet covered: Babergh, Mid Suffolk.
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 Ip28 7rp | 1,000 | outline | 2026-07-07 |
| Near Ip4 5se | 750 | reserved matters | 2026-07-20 |
| Near Ip27 9jl | 374 | reserved matters | 2026-06-16 |
| Near Ip28 8wg | 300 | outline | 2026-06-11 |
| 220 | reserved matters | 2025-08-08 |
Companies House · registrations
New developer companies
661 new development and property companies registered in Suffolk in the year to September 2026 (+0.5%), 245 of them as developers.
Q3 2026 brought 148 against 192 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
Suffolk against England and Wales
| Measure | Suffolk | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 100 | +69.5% | 9,562 | +11.3% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 28 | +47.4% | 3,908 | +21.2% |
| Live development book at 30 September 2026 | 350 | 42,944 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 59.4% | 61.3% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 37 | -19.6% | 5,002 | -0.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 1,461 | +12.5% | 67,091 | -7.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 11.7% | 8.1% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 661 | +0.5% | 58,644 | -5.1% |
What it means
What this means for developers exiting in Suffolk
Reading the signals as a set: new development lending, loan repayments, new-build sales are up, while exit-type lending is down.
Nothing unusual in the age of local loans, so each scheme's sales evidence will decide whether exit finance helps.
Rising new-build sales give lenders comfort on sales rates, which usually means better exit terms.
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 Suffolk 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: Babergh, East Suffolk, Ipswich, Mid Suffolk, West Suffolk (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 11 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 Suffolk: common questions
How much development lending is there in Suffolk?
Development lenders registered 100 new charges in Suffolk in the 12 months to September 2026 (+69.5% on the year before), taken by 47 companies. It counts loans taken, not their value.
Are development schemes in Suffolk overrunning?
At 30 September 2026, 59.4% of live development charges in Suffolk were over 24 months old (England and Wales: 61.3%). Charges that old usually sit on schemes past their original term.
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 East of England
Completing a scheme in Suffolk?
Send us the scheme, the current facility and the sales position and we will give a view on the exit options and indicative terms.