Site Development
With increasing regulations, compliance requirements, societal changes, and a persistent housing shortage, developers of residential and commercial properties face mounting pressures.
To ensure your project is successful, our Property Development Solicitors provide comprehensive advice on acquisition and disposal, finance, regulatory compliance, planning, environmental concerns, and construction law.
You can trust in our expertise and intelligence to guide your site development to a timely and budget-friendly completion.
We are a diverse, multi-lingual law firm leveraging cutting-edge technology to offer clients streamlined, modern, and highly effective commercial property law advice and representation. Our extensive experience in commercial property law has earned us a strong reputation for excellence, collaborating with the UK’s top Barristers and King’s Counsel, Estate Agents, Independent Financial Advisers, Surveyors, and Lenders who can provide additional support to our Commercial Property Department as needed.
Common Questions About Site Development
What Are the Different Types of Development Agreements?
Development agreements can take several forms, including:
- Agreement for lease (pre-let agreement): A tenant commits to leasing the premises once it is completed.
- Forward purchase agreement: Buyers, such as pension funds or insurance companies, agree to purchase the completed property at an early stage in the development. This agreement outlines the terms under which the developer will sell the property to the fund.
- Forward funding agreement: The purchaser or fund finances the development costs. While this may reduce the developer’s profit, it also mitigates risks compared to securing finance and then selling the completed investment. In return, the purchaser or fund assumes some risk in exchange for a lower purchase price and potentially higher yield. With forward funding, the property is usually pre-let. A speculative funding agreement is similar but does not involve a pre-let, increasing the purchaser or fund’s risk.
- Stand-alone development agreement: A landowner hires a developer to undertake a project on their land. For example, a supermarket might engage a developer to create additional retail space. The contract specifies whether the project costs will be borne by the landowner or the developer.
What Is Development Finance?
Development finance involves borrowing money to fund both the purchase and construction or redevelopment of a property. The lender uses the property and the developer’s rights under the development documents as security during construction.
Lenders will want to know:
- The loan-to-value ratio. During economic downturns, lenders prefer developments with substantial pre-lets, pre-sales, or deposits, and significant equity investment.
- That the development costs, including land acquisition, design, construction, management, and sale or letting of the completed property, stay within budget and do not exceed the development’s value upon completion.
Lenders also need assurance that they can ‘step in’ to complete the project if issues arise.
Why Choose Us?
Solicitors working on site development must be meticulous, swift, and responsive to changing circumstances and regulations. Our team regularly advises on multi-million-pound developments and understands the due diligence and agility required to protect investors’ and stakeholders’ money and reputations.
Our Property Development Solicitors have the expertise and resources to ensure every aspect of your project is thoroughly managed. Our services cover site assembly and acquisitions, joint ventures, pre-lets, planning for residential, commercial, and mixed-use schemes, including compulsory purchase, environmental law, and construction documentation. We also advise on rights to light, rights of way, and easements, as well as dispute resolution. You can trust us to provide the commercially astute legal advice needed to protect your interests and investment.
Our Solicitors are businesspeople themselves; therefore, they understand that every decision must consider commercial reality. Most of our instructions come from word-of-mouth recommendations because landowners, developers, and investors trust our expertise to get deals signed, finance acquired, and projects completed.
We focus on results, achieving them swiftly and cost-effectively. Our Commercial Property Solicitors will handle your legal concerns so you can concentrate on completing and profiting from your project.
To discuss site development, please contact us using the form below.
Cocks Lloyd Solicitors provides exceptional Site Development and Commercial Property services to clients. People choose and recommend us not just in Nuneaton, Tamworth, Atherstone, Hinckley and Leicester, but across Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire and the West Midlands, and the whole of the UK, because we get results.
To receive expert advice and representation regarding Site Development and Commercial Property, please contact us using the form below, call us on (0247) 6641642, email via the Request a Callback form on this contact page.