Development Exit in London and the South East: Q3 2026

The largest market has lost the most new-build volume since 2022.

London and the South East in Q3 2026, read from Companies House charges and Land Registry sales, with 41 location reports behind the local picture.

What stands out in London and the South East

Volume is where this region has changed most. Its 18,402 new-build sales are less than half the 42,098 recorded in the same window of 2021, and the decline has run through every year since. Almost nothing about that looks like a one-year wobble.

London boroughs differ widely, which makes a regional average a poor guide to any one scheme. Hammersmith and Fulham lost 55.4% of its standard new-build sales over the year while Brent gained 329.7%, swings that mostly reflect which large schemes happened to be selling. On loan age, Tower Hamlets stands at 74.5% over 24 months and Brent at 50.7%.

59.0% of the development-like book in London and the South East is over two years old

That is number 3 of 7 regions by age, against 61.4% nationally at 30 September 2026.

18,402 new-build sales in London and the South East, -11.6% on the year

Number 2 of seven by size of annual fall, in the four quarters to 2025 Q3. Against 2022: -47.8%, nationally -36.6%.

New-build houses in London and the South East sold at about the same median as existing stock

Median prices for 2025 Q3, against 20.3% nationally. Type-matched, not like for like.

With existing stock already expensive, new homes compete closely with resales on price, so any premium in the sales values needs firm comparables. Flats show 44.6%, a more volatile figure on far fewer sales.

The local picture from 41 location reports

Locations with at least 30 new charges in the year, against 61.3% and -7.1% nationally.

105,032 stated units approved in London and the South East

9,460 approvals across 102 authorities in the year to September 2026, 7,683 of them stating units, so this is a floor. See the methodology for why we do not rank regions on it.

What this means if you are building in London and the South East

This is our opinion as finance arrangers, drawn from the evidence above. It is general commentary rather than advice on any scheme, and indicative structures vary by lender, asset and borrower.

• Start the exit conversation before the facility forces it. With selling times at 67 days to find a buyer before any legal work, a scheme with a few months left on its loan has little room. A development exit facility is easier to arrange with time in hand and sales evidence than with a default date approaching.
• Test the appraisal against today's selling speeds, not 2022's. Rebuild the cash flow with the current time to find a buyer, then add the legal process, and allow for buyers borrowing at higher mortgage rates. If the numbers need faster sales, consider sales period finance before you need it rather than after.
• Decide early whether a block sale is a real option. In London and the South East, 33.6% of new-build flat sales sit outside the standard private category. Company and investor buyers exist, but sales in this category show a much lower median than standard sales, so stress the debt against a lower price. If it does not repay, the plan needs another route, such as finance against unsold units.
• Treat a part-complete scheme as a different conversation. Where the build is unfinished, the funding gap and the exit need to be solved together. Part-complete development exit sets out what lenders generally want to see.
• Bring evidence, not hope. Lenders usually size an exit on what the units will achieve and how fast they will sell. Reservations, local comparables and a realistic sales plan tend to do more for your terms than any market average, including the ones in this report.

How this report was built

Every figure is calculated from the sources below when the page is built. Nothing is estimated, and cuts below the minimum sample are shown as suppressed.

• Charges. Companies House mortgage and charge filings. A charge is security registered by a lender. It shows a loan was taken and when it was repaid, but not how much was lent, because filings have recorded no amounts since 2013. Registered to 30 October 2026, satisfactions filed to 2 November 2026.
• Lender populations. Specialist means charges held by a curated set of pure-play development lenders (10,127 charges). Development-like adds charges from development-active mixed lenders where the borrower carries a housebuilding code (SIC 41100 or 41202), the charge particulars use development terms, or a newly formed property company with no buy-to-let code is the borrower (66,728 charges in total). These mixed lenders also write buy-to-let books, so this wider measure is noisier. Location and exit-type figures use the strict version, with housebuilding codes only. Lenders are never named.
• Satisfactions. Filing is not compulsory, so every repaid figure is a floor and every aged figure is a ceiling. A quarter-end is provisional until 30 days after the data cut-off, which our tests between successive data vintages support: charge filings arrive within about 20 days, and figures at that age did not move materially when re-run three months later.
• Survivorship. The company register holds live companies only, so older cohorts are missing scheme companies since dissolved. Cohorts up to 2020 are reference only.
• Sold data. HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, England and Wales, detached, semi-detached, terraced and flats. New-build figures stop at 2025 Q3 because registrations lag completions by a year or more.
• Two new-build counts. National series in this report count every price paid category, giving 80,203 sales in the four quarters to 2025 Q3. Location reports and rankings count Category A only, giving 67,091 in a near-identical window. Most of the difference is Category B, which the buyer mix analysis measures directly.
• Regions. Charges are placed by property postcode where one can be identified: 43.6% of the specialist book and 65.3% of the development-like book. England and Wales only.
• Suppression. Shares and medians with fewer than 30 observations are withheld rather than estimated.
• Planning. Approved residential applications from council portals, deduplicated by authority and reference. Approvals lead completions by two to four years, and coverage differs by region, so totals are context and are not ranked.
• Selling time. Rightmove House Price Index, entered from published releases. It covers all listings, not new-build alone.

Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Companies House data is used under its public register terms. You are welcome to cite or chart these figures with a link to this page.

This report is general market commentary. It is not financial, legal, tax or investment advice, and it is not an offer of finance. DevExit is a finance arranger and introducer, not a lender.