Barr Ellison has built a solid reputation over the years for working with our clients to achieve enhanced value for their land through property development. The firm has acted in many large and small scale developments, assisting landowners and property developers throughout the development process from property sale or acquisition, through to planning agreements, joint venture agreements, overage agreements and infrastructure issues.

We provide specialist legal support for every stage of the property development life cycle. Our clients range from independent developers and landowners to larger housebuilders and joint venture partnerships. What unites them is a need for sharp, responsive legal guidance that gets deals done while managing risk intelligently, and that’s exactly what we deliver.

Our involvement regularly begins before a spade hits the ground. We advise on site acquisition, including title due diligence, contract negotiation, and the strategic use of options, promotion agreements or conditional contracts. Where multiple parcels of land are involved, we handle complex site assembly and advise on access, ransom strips and restrictive covenants that may affect deliverability.

Planning is a critical pressure point for developers. We negotiate and draft planning agreements, including Section 106 and Section 278 agreements, and provide tailored advice on community infrastructure levy (CIL) liabilities.

On the construction side, we prepare and review development agreements, and ensure that you have access to the expertise in relation to building contracts, collateral warranties and consultant appointments. We work closely with your surveyors, architects and project managers to keep everything moving in the right direction. Our team also ensures you have access to advice on rights of light, party wall matters and infrastructure rights to avoid delays once work begins.

As the development reaches completion, we support the sale or letting of individual units or entire blocks, drafting contract packs, managing lease structures and ensuring a clean, efficient legal process from exchange through to completion. For build-to-rent or mixed-tenure schemes, we advise on institutional disposal strategies, housing association sales and investor lease models.

Throughout every transaction, our approach is commercial, pragmatic and developer-focused. We help you cross the line from land potential to a delivered project.

Barr Ellison dealt with our transaction brilliantly. There was no part of it that I would change.
Keith Carne, Bursar, King’s College

I will be recommending your property development services in the future to all and sundry.
Robert Hoar

The Legal 500

The team climbs the ranking as ‘outstanding’ lead partner Kelly Peck continues to expand the practice at junior level and secure transactions of higher value and complexity. ‘It feels like an integrated practice with the lead partner ensuring continuity, knowledge transfer and quality service’, remarks a client. Associate Lucy Harrison  advises numerous landlords with large property portfolios, and is the key contact for the firm’s Cambridge University College clients. 

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