Residential development

Residential development specialists who get the job done right across the country.

We understand that residential development projects are complex, having multiple discrete, yet highly connected, elements that must come together seamlessly to deliver a profitable development. 

What do we do?

Across our Residential Development team we have legal professionals that advise developers throughout the lifecycle of a development. The team has been structured to mirror a development’s lifecycle and includes: 

1. Land team: specialises in helping clients negotiate all forms of legal agreements to buy or sell land, whether a niche development of a few houses or an urban extension of 6,000. We are typically involved at a very early stage, advising on how to structure an acquisition or disposal to achieve your objectives with the greatest protection – and, where needed, we provide support from our specialist property consultancy, Gateley Hamer, on compulsory purchase, utilities compensation and infrastructure.
2. Set up team: once a site is acquired our set up team works closely with our clients’ technical and sales teams to help create the documents so the development can move on to the next phase – sales. This includes ironing out any wrinkles that might slow down or disrupt plot sales and creating management structures which will stand the test of time.
3. Infrastructure team: our infrastructure team ensures that the roads, sewers and services are able to be laid and adopted across the development and that the statutory processes do not delay sales.
4. Plot sales team: then when it comes to helping our developer clients sell on plots, we make things easy. Our teams are extremely efficient in getting the job done to help move the development towards successful completion. In fact we are responsible for some £2.5bn of plot sales annually.

We provide advice to our housebuilder and landowner clients on all issues which could affect their plans, including:

• tenders and bids
• land assembly and constraints investigation
• site promotion and planning
• land remediation
• public grant
• long-term management arrangements
• affordable housing
• green agenda and sustainability.

And we have teams up and down the country – so we can be close to our clients and the projects they work on. 

Who do we help?

We support housebuilders of all sizes, land promoters, regeneration specialists, large-scale registered providers and large-scale landowners who are looking to sell land for residential development. We act, either regionally or nationally, for all of the top 10 and 18 of the top 20 housebuilders in the country.