Development and securitisation

Commercial development

Our commercial development lawyers specialise in acting for developers through all stages of the development process. That is to say, from purchasing land conditionally, pre-lettings to occupiers, construction of offices, warehouses, retail and mixed use schemes, to forward funding and selling the finished investment.

Every aspect of each deal is handled with a view to maximising value and minimising developer risk and we pride ourselves on offering a genuinely senior lead service where the lawyers you want are by your side throughout the deal at every step.

Some of the types of matters which we can advise and assist you with are:

• Confidentiality agreements
• Site acquisition and strategic site assembly
• Conditional contracts
• Option Agreements
• Agreements for lease with development obligations
• Forward funding agreements
• Joint ventures and collaboration agreements
• Development agreements
• Development finance facilities
• Development management agreements

Residential development

We act for landowners, private sector developers, promoters and affordable housing providers on all aspects of the development process from land assembly and acquisition through to site set up and plot sales.

Our team of specialist residential development lawyers have a proven track record of consistently delivering a pragmatic, efficient and successful service to our clients. By regularly acting for landowners, housebuilders ranging from single plots to large residential developments and planning promoters we are ideally placed to offer a wide range of expertise, technical skills and extensive experience in all types of residential development and strategic land agreements.

Some of the types of agreements and arrangements which we can assist with are:-

• Site acquisition and strategic site assembly
• Lock-out/exclusivity agreements
• Conditional and unconditional contracts for the sale of freehold land
• Option agreements
• Planning promotion and marketing and sales agreements
• Overage and clawback arrangements
• Joint ventures and collaboration agreements
• Site set up including the production of model plot sale documentation (including restricted and shared ownership leases)
• Implementation of estate management solutions including the formation of management companies and freehold reversion transfers
• Quick and efficient plot sales

Plot sales

The development setup and plot sales team prides itself on its proactive, forward thinking stance. We are prepared to work with and assist our clients with whatever development requirements may arise as part of this process to enable schemes to be set up and plot sales to be completed in a timely manner.  This includes:

• Preparing relevant documents including a schedule of information to provide a buyer with all the information they need for the transaction and  avoiding additional enquiries
• Standardising plot sale documents to reduce costs and time.  These are continually being reviewed and updated, most recently to remove the pre-emption rights where a leaseholder has staircased to 100% which has been a recent change imposed by the HCA as part of its capital funding guide.  Any documentation is also approved by the client before it is used in any shared ownership plot sale transaction
• We aim to visit site developments during the construction process meeting with the development site manager, employers agent and sales and marketing officers to get a feel for a development to ensure that the documentation ultimately produced reflects the circumstances and intentions of both the client and the scheme.
• Obtaining estate plan and draft lease approval from the Land Registry to provide further safeguards as part of the sale process
• Considering environmental issues when issuing title documentation. Instead of producing a contract pack we upload these on to our portal so the documentation is readily available for any purchaser and their solicitor. This saves time and expense both for the solicitor in approving the title and the cost of sending paper copies to their client.