Losing your competitive edge in property development?

However,  from 6 April 2027 the new “Provision of Information (Contractual Control) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026” are being introduced.

In summary these regulations mean that if you hold a right under an option agreement, conditional contract, pre-emption agreement, or promotion agreement over the whole or part of a registered freehold estate or a registered leasehold estate with 15 years or more remaining on the date on which the contractual right is granted, then you will be required to submit prescribed information about that right to HM Land Registry. The data will be published in a publicly searchable downloadable database from April 2028.

This means that:

• Option expiry and exercise dates will be public

Landowners, competitors, and other market participants will see when your option period ends and whether you have exercised or allowed a right to lapse. This has huge implications when looking to potentially re-negotiate your position on price, negotiating further extensions, or sub-selling.

• Your identity and land interests will be visible

Competitors will be able to track your site assembly strategy across multiple titles and, potentially, frustrate your plans. They could, for example, acquire ransom strips or adjacent plots.

• Extension provisions and longstop dates will be disclosed

This gives third parties insight into the outer limits of your control.

• Exercise and determination events must be reported within 60 days

This signals to the market that a site is being acquired or has become available.

The obligation to file the information is an ongoing continuing obligation and HM Land Registry must be updated within 60 days whenever an agreement is varied, assigned, exercised, expires, or is otherwise determined.

Failure to file the required information is a criminal offence and the Land Registry may refuse to register protective entries (notices and restrictions) on the title until the required information has been submitted.

There are some limited exemptions but these are unlikely to apply to most commercially negotiated site acquisition documents.

• Rights with a total period of control under 18 months
• Rights over leases with 15 years or less remaining
• Rights granted solely as security (e.g. under a charge, debenture, or overage security)
• Rights held exclusively for non-development purposes
• Rights relating exclusively to section 106 obligations

How are submissions made?

Submissions must be made digitally through a regulated conveyancer – you cannot make the application yourself.  The Land Registry’s digital submission portal will go live on 6 April 2027 and it is currently under development.

When must a submission be made by?

The Regulations are expected to be made in the first half of 2026 although, at the time of writing, they have still not been made into law.

• Agreements entered into after the Regulations are made but before 6 April 2027 must be reported by 6 October 2027.
• Agreements entered into after 6 April 2027 must be reported within 60 calendar days of any trigger event which is the grant, variation, assignment, expiry, exercise, or determination of a right.

Next steps

We will let you know when the Regulations are made into law as it is agreements made from that date that will need to be registered at HM Land Registry.

We will need to see the details of the LR submission portal so that we can finalise our procedures to ensure that our clients are able to meet their obligations under these new regulations.

For further information, please contact our expert development and regeneration team by email, or call +44(0)3333 231580.