113
New development charges, 12 months to June 2026 (-2.6%)
Development exit report · H1 2026
Westminster Development Exit Report, H1 2026
Who is lending to developers in Westminster, 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.
46
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
59.7%
Live development book over 24 months old (60.6% nationally)
94
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-54.8%)
Written and reviewed by Matt Lenzie Founder & Principal Broker · 25 years arranging development finance · Reviewed September 2026
In short
The biggest move in Westminster over the year to June 2026: registered new-build sales dropped 54.8% to 94 over the latest settled year. Meanwhile bridging and specialist lending to development companies dropped 29.2% to 51 charges. Loan age matters for exits: 59.7% of Westminster's live development charges passed the two-year mark by June 2026 (national 60.6%). Planners approved 1,416 residential schemes in the last year, the next wave of exits.
Scorecard
Westminster at a glance
How each signal moved over the year, measured the same way for every location we report on.
| Signal | Westminster | Change | Basis | Direction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges | 113 | -2.6% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before | Flat |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 46 | -6.1% | 12 months to June 2026 vs the 12 months before; recent filings provisional | Down |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 51 | -29.2% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Down |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 59.7% | -0.9 pts | at 30 June 2026, compared with 60.6% across England and Wales | In line |
| New-build sales registered | 94 | -54.8% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Down |
| New developer and property companies | 1,210 | +1.4% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Flat |
Companies House · development lending
Development lending and exits in Westminster
Development lenders registered 113 new charges against sites and developers in Westminster in the 12 months to June 2026, against 116 in the 12 months before (-2.6%). Those charges were taken by 91 separate borrowing companies.
Repayments ran at 46 over the same 12 months, 0.41 for every new charge against 0.4 nationally. The local book is clearing at least as fast as the national one.
Typical loan life on repayment: 40.6 months at the median, longer than the 33.1 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. Repayments are filed late, so the latest six months are provisional.
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · exit-type lending
Bridging and specialist lending to Westminster developers
The exit and refinance market in Westminster registered 51 charges on development companies over the latest year, down 29.2% from 72.
Specialist and challenger banks held the largest number, 29. The first half of 2026 alone brought 21, against 40 in the first half 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 Westminster
Across all 972 charges registered against property in Westminster over the year, specialist lenders held 75.1% of those we can match to a lender type, against 88.4% nationally. Specialists are 13 points less prominent than nationally.
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 Westminster came to 94 over the latest settled year (to July 2025), down 54.8% from 208. A new-build share of 4.0%; England and Wales ran at 8.3%.
The new-build premium was 229.3% on flats (£2,700,000 median).
Across the whole market, 2,064 homes changed hands in the 12 months to January 2026, down 12.6% 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
Planning · pipeline
The next wave of schemes needing an exit
The approved pipeline in Westminster: 1,416 residential consents in the latest 12-month window (1,278 other relevant, 57 new build, 40 conversion), plus 305 pending.
Where an approval states units (75 of them), they add up to at least 354 homes.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oslo Court Prince Albert Road London Nw8 7en | 129 | new build | 2025-11-21 |
| 82 Margaret Street London W1w 8lh | 29 | other residential | 2025-11-10 |
| 1 Vincent Square London Sw1p 2pn | 26 | conversion | 2026-04-02 |
| 153 - 157 Cleveland Street London W1t 6qw | 14 | other residential | 2026-04-02 |
| 72 Gloucester Place London W1u 6hh | 11 | other relevant | 2026-09-16 |
Companies House · registrations
New developer companies
1,210 new development and property companies registered in Westminster in the year to June 2026 (+1.4%), 449 of them as developers.
Half-year to half-year: 574 in the first half of 2026, 652 a year before.
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
Westminster against England and Wales
| Measure | Westminster | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 113 | -2.6% | 9,544 | +11.7% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 46 | -6.1% | 3,785 | +21.1% |
| Live development book at 30 June 2026 | 536 | 41,855 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 59.7% | 60.6% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 51 | -29.2% | 5,241 | +3.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 94 | -54.8% | 68,506 | -6.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 4.0% | 8.3% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 1,210 | +1.4% | 61,275 | +7% |
What it means
What this means for developers exiting in Westminster
0 signals rose in Westminster (none) and 3 fell (loan repayments, exit-type lending, new-build sales).
The age profile is close to the national picture, so the case for exit finance rests on each scheme's own sales rate, not a local squeeze.
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 Westminster 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: City Of Westminster (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 14 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 Westminster: common questions
Is development lending rising in Westminster?
It was broadly flat: 113 new development charges in the year to June 2026, -2.6% on the previous 12 months, according to the Companies House charge register.
How old are development loans in Westminster?
59.7% of the 536 development charges live in Westminster 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 Westminster?
Send us the scheme, the current facility and the sales position and we will give a view on the exit options and indicative terms.