Refinancing land to release the planning uplift once consent is granted

Consent changes the fundamentals of your site as an asset. Before permission, the land is worth its existing use plus whatever hope value the market allows; after permission, it can be valued on its consented basis, reflecting what can now actually be built.

For a lender, that shift removes a large slice of risk. The planning question that made bare land hard to lend against has been answered, so a lender can move to higher leverage and keener pricing. As broad guides, loan to value can rise from roughly 50% to 65% before consent to around 65% to 75% after consent, and a strong consented case can move from monthly bridging pricing towards senior debt from around 6% to 8% a year.

For you as the owner, the practical result is capital. The gap between the old value and the new consented value is real equity that a refinance can release, whether to repay the debt that bought the site, to recycle into the next opportunity, or to prepare the ground for building out. This is unregulated commercial lending for companies and investors, outside the FCA's regulated-mortgage perimeter. Nothing here is financial, legal, planning or tax advice.

Releasing the uplift means refinancing the land at its new, higher consented value and drawing out the difference as capital. Because the site is now worth more and carries less planning risk, a lender will advance against the consented valuation, and the new facility can be larger than the debt it replaces.

In practice the steps are straightforward:

• The land is revalued on its consented basis by a valuer the lender accepts.
• A new facility is agreed against that higher value, within the after-consent leverage band.
• Any existing loan on the site is repaid from the new facility.
• The surplus, the released uplift, is paid to you to use as planned.

As an illustration, an owner who bought a site for £1m and secured consent lifting its value to £1.8m might refinance at, say, 70% of the new value, repay the original acquisition debt, and release the balance as working capital. This is a hypothetical illustration only and not a promise of any particular value or outcome. The amount you can pull out depends on the consented valuation, the leverage a lender will offer, and your exit from the refinance itself, which a lender will still want to see clearly.

One of the most common reasons to refinance on consent is to repay short-term debt before it becomes expensive. If you bought the site on a bridge, or on a pre-planning facility that carried the planning risk, that loan was priced for a different, riskier stage.

Once consent lands, refinancing lets you replace that costlier short-term debt with a facility priced for a lower-risk, consented asset. The benefits are usually threefold:

• Lower cost: moving from monthly bridging pricing towards keener rates reduces the carrying cost of holding the site.
• A clean exit for the bridge: the refinance is itself the planned repayment of the earlier loan, which is exactly the exit the bridge lender wanted to see.
• Extra headroom: because the consented value is higher, the new facility can both clear the old debt and release surplus capital.

Timing matters here. A bridge with rolled-up interest grows over its term, so refinancing promptly once consent is confirmed keeps the redemption figure in check. We help line up the refinance so it completes cleanly against the bridge's timeline, avoiding a gap or a last-minute extension, and so the two facilities join up without friction.

The whole refinance turns on the valuation, so it pays to understand what a valuer is doing. Rather than valuing the land for its current use, a valuer assesses it on its consented basis: what the site is worth given what the permission allows to be built.

That figure is usually derived from the value of the completed scheme, less the costs to build it, the developer's profit and other allowances, to arrive at what the consented land is worth today. The stronger and more detailed the permission, the more confidently a valuer can assess it, which is one reason full consent often supports a higher figure than outline consent with reserved matters still outstanding.

A lender will want a valuation from a valuer on its panel and will lend a percentage of that consented value, within the after-consent range. Anything that helps evidence value, the decision notice, the approved drawings, any conditions and a clear scheme, supports the figure. We help you present the consent accurately and manage the valuation process, because the reported value drives both how much you can release and the leverage the lender will offer against it. Nothing here is financial, legal, planning or tax advice.

For many owners, refinancing on consent is a stepping stone rather than the destination. Once the uplift is secured, the natural next move is to build out the scheme the permission allows, and that is funded by development finance rather than a land facility.

Development finance is structured differently from a land refinance: it funds the construction itself, drawn in stages against build progress, and is repaid from the sale or refinance of the finished units. A land refinance and development finance often work in sequence: the refinance releases value and repays the acquisition debt, then development finance takes over to fund the build when you are ready to start on site.

Sometimes the two are combined from the outset, with a single facility structured to cover both the consented land and the build. Which route works best depends on your timing, your cash needs and how soon you intend to start construction. We look at the whole journey, from consent through to completed build, so the refinance is arranged with the next stage in mind rather than in isolation. We arrange both land refinancing and development finance and place them with specialist lenders; we do not lend ourselves.

To give you a useful view we need the current picture of the site, the consent and any debt already on it, so we can gauge how much uplift a refinance can release.

Helpful to send:

• The site address and the planning decision notice, with drawings and conditions.
• What you paid for the site and any existing loan, including its rate and redemption date.
• Any valuation you already hold, or your own view of the consented value.
• How much capital you want to release and what for.
• Your next step: hold, sell, or move into development finance to build.

We will give an indicative view on the leverage and pricing available within the bands on this page, then place the refinance with a specialist lender that values land on its consented basis. Where a build is next, we plan the move into development finance at the same time. We arrange the finance and place it with specialist lenders; we do not lend. These are indicative bands, not a guaranteed quote, and terms depend on the site, the consent and your exit. Nothing here is financial, legal, planning or tax advice.