"It’s clear that whilst many of the nation’s developers have been sure to maintain a robust pipeline of land bank plots, they have also been pushing forward and breaking ground in order to bring more homes to market to meet growing demand"
- Thomas Cantor - West One Loans
Developers are drawing on their substantial land reserves to bring more homes to market, according to a new analysis from West One Loans, which reveals a nearly £200bn land bank is actively being utilised by eight of the UK’s largest housebuilders.
The analysis, based on 2024 company reports, shows a combined total of 488,620 land bank plots held by the developers. With the current average new-build house price standing at £406,390, this equates to a pipeline value of around £198.6bn.
Bellway currently leads the pack, holding 95,292 land plots, with an estimated market value of £38.7bn. Persimmon follows with 82,084 plots worth £33.4bn, while Taylor Wimpey sits third with 78,626 plots, estimated at £32bn.
Although the government has introduced new planning rules to accelerate delivery, including measures that allow local authorities to reclaim land if developers fail to meet agreed timelines, the data suggests that many major builders are already increasing activity.
Land bank volumes across the eight housebuilders analysed have decreased by 3.6% in the past year, signalling ongoing construction efforts amid strengthening market confidence and greater mortgage affordability.
Vistry Group has made the biggest dent in its land reserves, reducing volumes by 7.9%. Berkeley Group and Crest Nicholson have followed with respective declines of 6.8% and 6%. Only Miller Homes has expanded its land bank, and only marginally, with a 0.1% year-on-year increase.
Commenting on the findings, Thomas Cantor, co-head of short-term finance at West One Loans, said: “It’s clear that whilst many of the nation’s developers have been sure to maintain a robust pipeline of land bank plots, they have also been pushing forward and breaking ground in order to bring more homes to market to meet growing demand.
“This is despite the fact that the current landscape still presents a range of challenges,” Cantor explained. “But, as interest rates have stabilised, we’ve seen more housebuilders turn to the specialist finance sector to help them facilitate their ambitions.
“This has largely taken the form of a greater reliance on bridging in order to help part fund their initial project, as well as utilising development finance in order to exit existing builds in order to push forward with the next.
“We’ve seen numerous examples over the last 12 months whereby developers have utilised us to help them in both instances and finding a finance specialist that can do so will ensure a far smoother process throughout.”
