Property Development
Whether a small-scale build or more complex development project, lawyers in our Commercial Property Team will work with you to help maximise your investment and ensure that the legal processes are in line with your commercial objectives and timescales.
The combined expertise of our team adds an experience factor which can pay dividends in avoiding pitfalls that can unnecessarily delay or add significant expense to development projects. Working in partnership with you, we advise on the legal aspects of development projects from dealing with any issues arising from the identification and purchase of a development site, through to assisting with the sale or letting of the finished properties.
Key aspects of advice include:
- Site suitability and acquisition
- Vehicles available to hold property
- Investigation of planning restrictions
- Options to purchase e.g. prior to granting of planning permission
- Obtaining good title e.g. rights of way through land, boundaries and covenants, site access for building works, ransom strips
- Finalising mortgage arrangements with all parties e.g. lenders, joint venture partners or venture capital investors.
Plot Sales and Leases
Agreement and completion of contractual documentation between all parties. Either ‘off plan’ prior to the completion of building, or after the building is complete and a purchaser / tenant has been found.Design and Build Projects
Protection of the client’s interests by, for example:
- Checking that documentation is in place to make sure that the property is built adequately and in accordance with the agreed specification
- Ensuring that the seller will put right any defects
- Advising buyer / tenants on hidden problems that could arise later as a result of defective materials, design or construction
- Preparation and advising on collateral warranties
Our Clients
Our clients are involved in development sites across Dorset, Wiltshire, Hampshire, Sussex, Berkshire, Surrey and London. Projects have included the development of bespoke luxury homes, the purchase of mixed use schemes for out of town and town centre sites and the purchase of industrial sites and units. In addition, using the expertise of our Property Pension Investment Team we acquire sites as part of tax efficient pension funds or tailor sites to be sold to pension funds, some of which include the largest property pension investors in the UK.
Our Fees
We offer competitive fees for development work and can package fee structures to match the needs of your project - for example, avoiding ‘frontloading’ fees where a budget requires this.
