Development and Strategic Land

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.

Matters we can advise and assist you with are:

• Exclusivity and lockout agreements
• Site acquisition and strategic site assembly
• Conditional contracts
• Option Agreements
• Agreements for lease 
• Forward funding and forward commitment agreements
• Joint ventures and collaboration agreements
• Overage agreements
• Development finance facilities
• Development control agreements

Residential development

We act for landowners, private sector developers, local authorities 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, developers, local authorities and registered providers we are ideally placed to offer a wide range of expertise, technical skills and extensive experience in all types of residential development transaction.

Some of the types of transactions which we can assist with are:-

• Site acquisition and site assembly
• Golden Brick contracts
• Lock-out/exclusivity agreements
• Conditional and unconditional contracts
• Central ransom strips
• Deferred payments and legal charges 
• Overage and clawback arrangements
• Development agreements
• Joint ventures and collaboration agreements
• Service easements
• 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

Strategic land

Our residential development lawyers regularly act for landowners who have varying degrees of experience of strategic land agreements. For most, the opportunity to sell their land for development purposes is a significant financial transaction which does not arise on more than one occasion. In these circumstances, we appreciate that our landowner clients may feel uneasy when faced with the complex and unfamiliar issues which arise in such transactions, particularly when the other party in the transaction is a national housebuilder or established land promoter who has a number of similar transactions on the go at any point in time. We further appreciate the likely financial and emotional significance of the matter to you.

Some of the strategic land transactions our team can advise you on include:-

• Lock-out/exclusivity agreements
• Option agreements
• Planning promotion agreements
• Hybrid agreements
• Release and/or variation of rights, easements and covenants affecting land
• Overage and clawback arrangements
• Pre-emption agreements
• Collaboration/Equalisation agreements
• Land Pool Trusts

Landowners

We can work closely with your retained accountants and tax advisers. We draw on the particular expertise of our colleagues in our Private Client and Corporate teams to ensure any proposed development land transaction is structured in the most tax efficient method (both in terms of inheritance tax and capital gains tax).

We also have a strong heritage of working with farmers and farming families and a depth of understanding of the particular challenges and opportunities within the agricultural sector. This, combined with our commercial strength and expertise means that we are well placed to advise those in the agricultural sector looking to diversify by offering or promoting part of their land for development.

We appreciate that in many instances where an agricultural landowner is disposing of land for development  they will often wish to reinvest the proceeds of sale in a further agricultural holding or holdings. In these circumstances it is important for the landowner to have a strong team of advisers to help facilitate the transition and in doing so mitigate any potential tax liabilities so far as reasonably possible.

Consequently, we also regularly involve colleagues in our agricultural team to advise on the reinvestment. We also seek assistance from our agricultural team on the implications of any farming tenants which may be in occupation of the property, any consequent security of tenure issues which may arise, formalising relationships with any farming tenants by way of a Farm Business Tenancy or similar structure, and ensuring delivery of vacant possession of the property on or prior to the sale of the consented land.

Recent examples of where we have assisted landowners in strategic land transaction are:

• Acting for a farming family in relation to a large strategic land promotion agreement with a national land promoter. The promotion agreement extended to over 250 acres of land intended as a new settlement and is typical of the sort of strategic land agreements on which we have been advising in recent years. As well as the land promotion agreement itself, the transaction was complicated by the fact that a number of adjoining landowners will need to be involved in the wider planning promotion for the new settlement.

• Acting for a landowner in both the sale of part of his agricultural landholding to a national housebuilder for the development of up to 150 dwellings and his related purchase of a new agricultural holding/business of approximately 100 hectares of land. This transaction involved a number of our lawyers across multiple disciplines including Residential Development, Agriculture and Corporate to achieve a successful sale and purchase within very tight timescales. The sale and purchase involved a number of complex elements including deferred payment, infrastructure obligations, agricultural tenancies, overage, parent company guarantees and so on.

• Acting for a landowner in the sale of part of his property with the benefit of outline planning permission for up to 75 dwellings to national housebuilder. The deal was particularly complex and involved liaising with a land promoter, securing deferred payment by way of a legal charge, retention of part of the purchase price and securing a host of post-completion planning and infrastructure obligations.

Plot sales

The development setup and plot sales team prides itself on its proactive, forward thinking approach. 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
• Obtaining estate plan and draft transfer/lease approval from the Land Registry to provide further safeguards as part of the sale process
• Considering environmental issues when issuing title documentation. 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.

Developers and land promoters

Our strategic land lawyers are an experienced safe pair of hands working alongside you to anticipate and resolve legal issues in a pragmatic way. We offer a practical and proactive approach and help to find solutions to any problems which could adversely affect delivery.

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. We want to be there with you from start to finish and do our bit to make the process as smooth as possible for you.

We are experienced in acting for developers taking options then subsequently exercising them and acquiring multi million pound development sites.

Similarly we are experienced in acting for land promoters entering into promotion agreements. We are used to leading on the subsequent sale of the consented land, which often involves overage, deferred payments, security and ransom/control strips.

Registered provider service

Housing is a key priority sector for us. We have over a considerable number of years built our expertise and national reputation in this sector and we have strong partnerships with our registered provider clients. 

We can advise and assist Registered Providers with:-

• Acquisition of section 106 affordable housing units from volume housebuilders on both a conditional and unconditional basis
• Shared ownership plot sales
• Staircasing transactions
• Preserved right to buy, right to acquire and right to buy sales
• Surrenders, regrants and assignments of existing leasehold properties.
• Lease extensions and one-off property sales 
• Mortgage rescue transactions

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