116
New development charges, 12 months to September 2026 (-3.3%)
Development exit report · Q3 2026
Westminster Development Exit Report, Q3 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.
63
Development loans filed as repaid, same 12 months
58.5%
Live development book over 24 months old (61.3% nationally)
102
New-build sales, latest settled 12 months (-48.2%)
In short
In Westminster, registered new-build sales declined 48.2% to 102 over the latest settled year, the sharpest change of any signal we track for the borough. Behind it, development loans filed as repaid increased 28.6% to 63. 58.5% of live development loans here were over 24 months old at the end of September, 2.8 points below the national share, a direct read on how many schemes are past a normal build term. 115 residential approvals over the latest 12 months set up the pipeline that will need refinancing next.
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 | 116 | -3.3% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Flat |
| Development charges satisfied (exits filed) | 63 | +28.6% | 12 months to September 2026 vs the 12 months before | Up |
| Exit-type lending to developers | 53 | -24.3% | bridging, specialist-bank and private-credit charges on development companies | Down |
| Live development book over 24 months old | 58.5% | -2.8 pts | at 30 September 2026, compared with 61.3% across England and Wales | Below national |
| New-build sales registered | 102 | -48.2% | settled 12 months (registration lag allowed for) vs the 12 months before | Down |
| New developer and property companies | 1,151 | -6% | SIC 41100, 41202, 68100 by registered office; live register only | Down |
Companies House · development lending
Development lending and exits in Westminster
91 borrowers, 116 charges: that is the scale of new development lending in Westminster in the year to September 2026, compared with 120 charges a year earlier.
Repayments ran at 63 over the same 12 months, 0.54 for every new charge against 0.41 nationally. The local book is clearing at least as fast as the national one.
Typical loan life on repayment: 44.9 months at the median, longer than the 33.8 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.
New development chargesSatisfied (loan repaid)
Companies House charge register, Construction Capital analysis
Companies House · exit-type lending
Bridging and specialist lending to Westminster developers
Bridging lenders, specialist banks and funds took 53 charges over Westminster development companies in the year to September 2026 (-24.3% on the 70 of the year before).
Most came from specialist and challenger banks (35). Comparing the same quarter a year apart, 14 in Q3 2026 against 13 in Q3 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 992 charges registered against property in Westminster over the year, specialist lenders held 75.3% of those we can match to a lender type, against 87.5% nationally. Specialists are 12 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
The settled Land Registry year to September 2025 shows 102 new homes sold in Westminster, compared with 197 in the year before. A new-build share of 4.3%; England and Wales ran at 8.1%.
The new-build premium was 242% on flats (£2,787,500 median).
All residential sales totalled 1,849 in the settled 12 months to April 2026 (-28.7% 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
City of Westminster approved 115 residential applications between 1 July 2025 and 30 September 2026, with 43 still pending. By type: 35 change of use, 30 prior approval, 20 conversion.
Where an approval states units (90 of them), they add up to at least 381 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near Sw1v 2jq | 52 | prior approval | 2025-09-18 |
| Near Sw1v 2rw | 31 | change of use | 2026-05-06 |
| Near Sw1p 2pn | 26 | prior approval | 2026-04-02 |
| Near W1w 6ab | 24 | prior approval | 2026-07-24 |
| Near Sw1v 2rr | 18 | prior approval | 2025-09-12 |
Companies House · registrations
New developer companies
New single-purpose companies are where most schemes start. Westminster added 1,151 in the year to September 2026, down 6% on the prior year, 444 of them developers.
Q3 2026 brought 255 against 290 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
Westminster against England and Wales
| Measure | Westminster | Change | England and Wales | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New development charges, 12 months | 116 | -3.3% | 9,562 | +11.3% |
| Development charges satisfied, 12 months | 63 | +28.6% | 3,908 | +21.2% |
| Live development book at 30 September 2026 | 544 | 42,944 | ||
| Share of live book over 24 months old | 58.5% | 61.3% | ||
| Exit-type lending to developers, 12 months | 53 | -24.3% | 5,002 | -0.4% |
| New-build sales, settled 12 months | 102 | -48.2% | 67,091 | -7.1% |
| New-build share of sales, settled 12 months | 4.3% | 8.1% | ||
| New developer and property companies, 12 months | 1,151 | -6% | 58,644 | -5.1% |
What it means
What this means for developers exiting in Westminster
Up: loan repayments. Down: exit-type lending, new-build sales, new companies.
The local book is younger than the national one, pointing to newer schemes and fewer overruns. Here the exit question is about planning the refinance before completion, not rescuing late schemes.
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 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 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: City Of Westminster (local authority boundaries). Minimum sample 30. 16 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: 116 new development charges in the year to September 2026, -3.3% on the previous 12 months, according to the Companies House charge register.
How many Westminster schemes are past a normal development term?
Measured by charge age, 58.5% of the live development book in Westminster 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 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.