Insights
Practical guidance on handover, compliance, defect management, and the future of residential delivery.
Most homeowner apps are completion deliverables. They go live at handover and gather dust until the customer sells. The portal is not the product.
Read articleWhen a contractor enters administration mid-build, the documents they held may never be recoverable. What that exposes about most document strategies.
Read articleMoat Homes has filed a £2.1m claim against Vision Homes for alleged defects at a 50-home scheme in West Wickham. The case shows how unresolved defect liability period failures accumulate into significant litigation risk.
Read articleSavills Q2 2026 data shows £2.2bn invested in a single quarter and completions up 11% year-on-year. Two of London's three largest BTR transactions ever closed in the period. At this scale, handover quality becomes the operational bottleneck.
Read articleBerkeley Group FY26 results show 90% of their homes handed over with five or fewer defects, against an HBF industry average of 31%. A 59-point gap that the incoming statutory ombudsman regime will make harder to ignore.
Read articlePortfolio reports show what has already gone wrong. Forward-looking visibility shows what is about to. Here is what the data architecture actually requires.
Read articleReports from 29 June indicate that Housing Secretary Steve Reed has been working on plans for a publicly backed arm's-length developer to buy land, commission contractors, and compete in the market-sale sector. The structural implications for private developers and housing associations are significant.
Read articleParliament holds a dedicated debate on the Commonhold and Leasehold Reform Bill on 2 July 2026. For developers building flat schemes, mandatory commonhold is coming: the question is whether their completion documentation will be ready when it does.
Read articleA new HBF report finds 45% of councils charge full council tax on unsold new homes once deemed 'substantially complete'. Its proposed fix ties that definition to a building control completion certificate, not local guesswork.
Read articleThe first fully contested BLO judgment confirms defect liability can extend to parent companies before any court finding is made. For developers building through corporate groups, insolvency is no longer a firewall.
Read articleThe South West housebuilder entered administration on 18 June 2026, leaving buyers at active sites in Bideford and Penzance facing an immediate question: what happens to unresolved defects when the developer is no longer operational?
Read articleSavills' June 2026 completions forecast shows England averaging 167,500 new homes a year to 2029/30, with output dropping to 150,000 in 2026/27 and 2027/28. The mandatory Ombudsman, Building Safety Levy, and Awaab's Law Phase 2 all take effect regardless.
Read articleHomes England delivered 40,332 completions in 2025-26, up 9% and the highest since 2020. Eighty per cent were affordable homes handed to registered providers. At that scale, the handover documentation challenge is no longer a niche concern.
Read articleTower Hamlets, Hackney and Lewisham filed a judicial review on 24 June 2026, challenging Mayor Khan's decision to cut London's affordable housing requirement from 35% to 20%. Seven boroughs are now behind the claim, and legal uncertainty now hangs over every London scheme that went through the 20% fast-track.
Read articleSouth West housebuilder Devonshire Homes entered administration in June 2026, with Alvarez & Marsal appointed as joint administrators. For buyers on active sites, NHBC Buildmark cover and existing documentation are the primary protections — and the case raises questions every developer should ask about their own records.
Read articleOn 17 June 2026, MHCLG and DSIT launched two AI tools for planning decisions: APD, developed with Google DeepMind, targets a 50% cut in processing times, while Extract converts planning documents into structured data for all councils in England. The document management problem it solves at planning doesn't stop at approval.
Read articleOn 19 June, MHCLG published a homebuying reform roadmap requiring upfront digital sales packs and property logbooks. New build developers are described as already well placed, but only if their documentation is actually organised.
Read articleWhen the defects liability period ends, the disputes do not. Why the post-DLP period is where operational risk concentrates and why the DLP record determines the outcome.
Read articleHomes England and Hill Group have completed the £350m acquisition of Cambridge East, a 700-acre site including Cambridge City Airport. More than 10,000 homes over a multi-decade delivery programme raises compliance challenges that outlast any single customer care team.
Read articleFrom October 2026, Phase 2 of Awaab's Law extends statutory repair timescales to seven additional HHSRS hazard categories including fire, electrical, structural and excess cold and heat. For housing associations managing new-build homes, the compliance clock is about to get significantly bigger.
Read articleMHCLG confirmed the national scheme of delegation takes effect 31 October 2026, routing most compliant housing applications to officer decision without a committee stage.
Read articlePlacePoint, the £150m joint venture between the Government's National Housing Bank and Vistry Group, has made its first land acquisition at the Gamston Sustainable Urban Extension in Nottinghamshire. Mixed-tenure delivery across multiple partners creates compliance obligations no single organisation owns.
Read articleA building logbook is a structured record of a building's energy systems, services and maintenance requirements. This guide explains what the regulation requires, what a logbook contains, and where the obligation sits for residential developers.
Read articleA building passport is a structured digital record of a building: what it contains, how it was built, and how it should be maintained. This guide explains what it contains, why it matters under the Building Safety Act, and how residential developers can implement one.
Read articleA handover pack is the full set of documentation a developer gives to a buyer at completion. This guide explains what it must contain, where developers most commonly fall short, and why the format is now as important as the content.
Read articleThe Mayor of London launched City Hall Developer on 16 June 2026, committing £100m equity to the Silvertown Partnership to deliver up to 7,000 homes in the Royal Docks. A £1.5bn Investment Fund now opens to housing associations. At scale, the handover and aftercare obligations that follow are the same as any other scheme.
Read articleThe Build to Rent Alliance launched its first Code of Practice for England and Wales at UKREiiF in May 2026, backed by 16 institutional operators including Grainger, Greystar, and Get Living. A third-party verification process is being finalised for later this year.
Read articleCrest Nicholson's lender syndicate has appointed Alvarez & Marsal as covenant talks continue into summer 2026. The DLP questions it raises apply to any developer operating with reduced headroom.
Read articleThe Building Safety Levy takes effect 1 October 2026, adding around £3,000 per plot to residential schemes of 10 or more dwellings. Building control applications submitted before that date are exempt: a narrowing window developers should be reviewing now.
Read articleWhen a land deal, bulk sale or S106 transfer completes, liability moves between organisations. Documents are the smallest part of what changes hands: this is the difference between a deal folder and a controlled transfer of liability.
Read articleThe government's statutory New Homes Ombudsman scheme starts 7 September 2026, making membership mandatory for all residential developers in England, including the third to two-fifths currently outside the voluntary scheme.
Read articleThe HCLG Committee has warned the government that pressure to deliver homes at pace may compromise new build quality, and called for a statutory ombudsman covering all developers by 2028/29.
Read articleA complete checklist of the documentation, inspections, and processes required at new build handover: from HUGs and EPCs to warranty packs and homeowner portals.
Read articleThe NHQC sets legally-backed obligations around reservation, inspection, and aftercare for registered developers. This guide explains what it requires and how to demonstrate compliance.
Read articleSnagging is the process of identifying defects in a newly built property before or after handover. This guide explains what it involves, who is responsible, and how to manage it at scale.
Read articleThe NHQC, Shared Ownership Code, Future Homes Standard, Building Safety Act and Awaab's Law converge on one demand: prove what you disclosed, to whom, and when.
Read articleThe Approved Documents are published, in force from March 2027. The headlines are heat pumps and solar. The operational shock is handover, and the evidence it now carries.
Read articleThe NHQC runs from reservation to after-sales, and almost every clause is, underneath, a record-keeping clause. How the Code maps to handover governance and document assurance.
Read articleHousing associations are registering for the Shared Ownership Code. Adoption is the easy headline. Evidencing it, plot by plot, is the real work, and it's where most providers are quietly exposed.
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