For landowners in Hampshire
Choose your land promoter on evidence.
A land promoter or housebuilder may hold your land for years. We show you who gets planning, who wins appeals and who has the money to see it through.
- Independent of every promoter
- Landowners first
- Built on public records
01The agreements
Two ways to take land through planning.
Under an option agreement or a promotion agreement, someone else pays for the planning work. The route is the same until planning is granted. What differs is who buys your land and how the price is set.
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You sign the agreement
It sets the term, the price terms and a minimum price. The other party registers its interest on your title.
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It pays for planning
The promoter or developer seeks a Local Plan allocation and planning permission, at its own cost and risk. You normally keep farming the land.
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Planning is granted
If it isn't granted by the end of the agreement, the agreement ends. Check what costs can survive it.
Then the two routes divide
Option agreement
The developer chooses whether to buy.
It buys at the price the agreement sets: market value less an agreed discount, often with a minimum price per acre.
- Up front
- Usually an option fee
- Price set by
- Valuation
- Interests
- Opposed: the buyer gains from a lower valuation
Promotion agreement
The land is sold to the best bidder.
It is marketed, usually to housebuilders. The promoter recovers its agreed costs and takes an agreed share. You receive the rest.
- Up front
- Often little or nothing
- Price set by
- The open market
- Interests
- Aligned: the promoter earns more when the land sells for more
Terms vary, and every point is negotiable.
02The promoters
Promoters are not all the same.
Some get planning on most of the sites they take on. Some hold land for years and get nowhere. The difference is in the public record. Our directory lists the companies promoting housing land in Hampshire, and each profile will carry six measures.
Promoter profile: what each one recordsFigures follow with the league table
- Sites promoted
- Sites in the region taken to a planning decision.
- Approval rate
- Decided applications that ended with permission, from the council or on appeal.
- Appeal win rate
- Appeals the Planning Inspectorate allowed.
- Median months to consent
- From first application to planning permission.
- Allocation strike rate
- Sites put forward to a council that were allocated in its Local Plan.
- Financial strength
- A band from its accounts, charges and ownership.
A promoter needs the money to see a site through, sometimes for ten years or more.
See the promoters in Hampshire
Ready now for Test Valley: planning odds and who is promoting land there.
Get the Hampshire league table first.
03Our method
Every measure comes from a record you can check.
A promoter's track record is public, but it is scattered. We pull it together and name every source. Promoters can't pay to change their score.
Council planning registers
Planning applications, matched to a promoter by the applicant named on them and the company's group at Companies House. If we can't be confident, we leave the application out.
The Planning Inspectorate
Appeal decisions.
Companies House
Accounts, charges and ownership.
Local Plans
Call-for-sites submissions and housing allocations.
Landowner reviews
Published only once we've seen a signed agreement between the landowner and the promoter.
04Risks and limits
What can go wrong, and what our data can't tell you.
A land agreement can tie up your land for years, sometimes ten or more. Know the risks before you sign, and know the limits of any score, including ours.
In any land agreement
Planning may never come
A generous agreement with a promoter that never gets planning is worth nothing.
Your land is tied up
Terms often extend while an application or appeal is live. You can't sell or borrow against the land without the other party's agreement.
Costs come off first
Promotion costs, VAT at 20% on the promoter's fee, and tax on what you receive. Insist on a cap on costs.
The price can work against you
A low minimum price, or an option valuation that comes in low, can mean a sale you'd not choose.
The promoter can fail
Ask what happens to the agreement, and to the entry on your title, if it runs out of money.
In our data
A record is not a forecast
A promoter's past results can't tell you whether your site will get planning.
Rates don't show difficulty
A promoter that only takes easy sites will look good. Some appeal only their strongest cases.
Accounts run late
Filed accounts can be well over a year old by the time they appear.
A listing is not a recommendation
We list a promoter because the public record shows it working in Hampshire, not because we rate it.
We are not your advisers
We don't give legal, tax or valuation advice. Use a specialist land agent and a solicitor acting for you alone.
Tax, costs and legal traps ยท 12 questions to ask a promoter
05Get in touch
Tell us about your land.
It takes three minutes, and there's no obligation. We read every form ourselves and call within two working days. Or email [email protected].