Housebuilding & Strategic Land

Housebuilding & strategic land lawyers

Freeths have a long history of work in this sector and act for some of the biggest private house builders in the country. We are proud of our reputation as one of the pre-eminent law firms for residential development in the Midlands and beyond. Our experienced residential development lawyers can advise you on a wide range of transactions, from small residential development sites to major strategic land acquisition and promotion. We have the expertise to ensure that everything runs smoothly.

We can advise on strategic land, joint ventures, acquisition and development of residential estates, together with Housing Association disposals, residential property portfolio management, site assembly, funding, and planning and infrastructure agreements. We continue to help a wide variety of residential developers across the UK.

Key contacts

Patrick Adie
National Head of Housebuilding & Strategic Land

0345 050 3273

James Hart
Regional Lead for Real Estate in the Midlands – Partner in the Housebuilding & Strategic Land Team

0345 274 6811

Notable work

• Advising Bellway Homes Limited in relation to the ground-breaking partnering arrangement with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, InPartnership Limited and Whitefriars Housing Group for carrying out the major 15 year, £1.8 billion regeneration of Council estates in North Solihull
• Acting for Milton Keynes Development Partnership in a wide range of residential and commercial development schemes. These were secured by way of development agreement and building lease within the borough of Milton Keynes. Schemes included education and health sites, residential developments, industrial schemes and town-centre mixed use developments
• Acting for a consortium of national house builders in the purchase of land for 1100 houses from a consortium of 10 landowners subject to deferred payments and a number of overages
• Acting for two land promoters in a series of promotion agreements to facilitate the creation of a Sustainable Urban Extension (“SUE”) for circa 6000 houses with ancillary schools, community facilities and commercial uses
• Acting for a national residential developer in relation to the assembly of a development site in Cheshire, involving complicated timing issues and overage provisions
• Acting for a developer on a conditional back-to-back purchase and sale of land. The sale was to a housing association at golden brick, with a linked JCT and a land-and-build price of £9 million. This is a transaction structure that Patrick has utilised many times, on behalf of landowners, developers and housing associations
• Advising a major London local authority in connection with the development and sales of new build properties and regeneration projects at three new housing developments
• Acting for Blueprint Limited Partnership in relation to the disposal of 160 new build plots at its residential regeneration and eco-development in Nottingham – including the grant funding agreement with the Homes and Communities Agency