Real Estate

Our Real Estate lawyers, based in Kent but acting for clients nationally, form one of the largest and most experienced teams in the region. We offer commercial advice and a London style service that helps you achieve your objectives as swiftly and cost effectively as possible.

We place an emphasis on understanding your commercial strategies and tailoring our services accordingly. We act for a wide variety of commercial clients including businesses, individuals, house builders and developers, pension funds, retailers, restauranteurs, charities, lenders, local authorities and other public sector organisations.

Our Real Estate lawyers practice in areas including:

• Acquisitions and disposals
• Portfolio asset management
• Commercial and residential development
• Real estate finance
• Agriculture & rural affairs
• Planning
• Construction
• Real estate disputes
• The Building Safety Act.

The size of the team and level of experience and expertise that we have, means that we can deploy specialist Real Estate lawyers at all levels, as appropriate. We can also draw on support from the firm’s very strong Corporate, Commercial, Employment and Private Wealth teams.

Our experienced Real Estate lawyers, based in Kent, advise on all aspects of acquisition and disposal whether owner-occupation or for investment.

We work with institutional investors, operating businesses, the public sector, estates and private individuals and those acquiring portfolios of properties.

We have significant experience advising on property sales, acquisitions, and investments. Our work includes supporting the sale of freehold sites worth more than £40 million, advising on residential and commercial property investments, and assisting with multiple business acquisitions, including planning, construction, and funding matters.

Click here to view our acquisitions & disposals page.

Our Real Estate lawyers, based in Kent, have a wealth of experience acting for both landlords and tenants of property portfolios.

We advise landlords across the full lifecycle of commercial property ownership, from expanding portfolios through new leases, acquisitions and purchases, to managing sales, lease surrenders, assignments and breaks. Our services include lease management, variations, licences, underletting, refinancing, tenant exits, dilapidations, development strategies, rent recovery, covenant enforcement and insolvency matters. We also support landlords with business tenancy renewals, lease enfranchisement and extensions, working closely with our real estate dispute colleagues to resolve tenant defaults and protect our clients’ interests.

To find out more, please view our dedicated portfolio asset management page.

Our expert team of residential development lawyers is highly regarded. We act for landowners, developers and house builders across the South East and nationally.

We act for a number of national house builders and provide the whole range of development services to support the aims and objectives of these clients.

We provide specialist expertise in connection with joint venture and partnership arrangements, promotion agreements, the acquisition or disposal of strategic land, equalisation agreements, option and pre-emption and overage arrangements.

Visit our dedicated residential development page.

We offer practical, commercially orientated advice to clients including landowners, corporate entities, private landlords and developers.

Our specialisms include the purchase and sale of land for commercial development, infrastructure agreements, land promotion, planning matters, development agreements, as well as leases and construction-related documentation. We provide specialist advice across all stages of the development process, helping clients navigate complex property transactions and achieve their commercial objectives.

To find out how we can help, please click here.

We act for senior debt and mezzanine funders as well as advising borrowers. Our clients include major financial institutions, banks, private equity houses and high net worth individuals. We have been appointed to numerous panels, acting for various lending clients over many years.

Whether you are a funder or borrower, our real estate finance lawyers provide commercially focussed advice aimed at ensuring deals are completed within the required time frames whilst still protecting your interests. Our role is more than simply knowing the law on property finance, it is about applying our business acumen and experience to the deal to get it done in a timely and efficient way.

To find out more, please visit our real estate finance page.

We have extensive experience in, and a deep understanding of, the agricultural sector. Our ALA qualified team of agricultural affairs lawyers act for estates, landowners and landowning trusts, tenants and developers.

Our specialisms include land sales and purchases, agricultural tenancies and lettings, grazing licences, sporting rights, renewable energy projects, development projects, issues concerning stamp duty on agricultural land, agricultural real estate disputes, and planning matters. We provide expert advice across a wide range of agricultural and rural property matters, supporting clients with both transactional and advisory requirements.

Click here to visit our agriculture & rural affairs page.

UK planning law is highly complex and changing rapidly. We have an in-depth understanding of the planning landscape and significant expertise in advising on and unlocking difficult planning issues.

Our planning legal experts work with funders, developer clients and local authorities as part of their professional team, alongside planning consultants, chartered surveyors and architects, adding significant value.

Administrative delays, legal complexity, special interest groups and conflicting government policies can combine to create a dangerous and costly obstacle course. With our cross-departmental expertise, our links with other professionals, our many years’ experience and commercial awareness, we help negotiate a path through the challenges with less pain and greater confidence.

We focus clearly on the results that you want to achieve and we will always be pragmatic, clear and candid on what’s the most realistic way to get there.

To find our more, please click here.

Our construction and engineering lawyers use their expertise and in-depth knowledge of the  industry to help make your construction project a success and resolve any disputes that arise.

We advise businesses and individuals on specialist construction contracts and ancillary project documentation, and provide post-contract (and post-completion) support that is tailored to each project.

We work closely with the Real Estate Finance team providing support to lenders,  borrowers and providers of security documentation (such as guarantors or warrantors) as necessary.

Our specialist construction law experience includes project documentation, procurement and strategy, project support, dispute resolution, adjudication, and international project support. We provide practical legal advice throughout the lifecycle of a construction project, helping clients manage risks, resolve issues, and achieve successful outcomes.

To find out more, please visit our construction page.

Our highly experienced team provides pragmatic and commercial solutions to resolve real estate disputes.

We work with developers, portfolio owning landlords, banks, charities, landowners and insolvency practitioners, helping to solve problems as quickly and cost effectively as possible. Clients value our ability to foresee potential disputes and get involved early, ensuring that issues are mitigated before they escalate or have a knock-on effect.

Our specialist real estate litigators work closely with colleagues from across our Commercial and Residential Development, Portfolio Asset Management and Real Estate Finance teams.

To find out how we can help, visit our disputes page.

We can help you navigate the complexities of the fast-developing building safety regime initiated by the Building Safety Act 2022 (the ‘Act’). Taking a joined up approach, that draws on expertise from across our Construction and Engineering, Real Estate, Real Estate Finance and Real Estate Disputes teams, we help you to understand relevant obligations under the Act and identify and mitigate risks associated with the building safety regime.

We act for a wide range of clients including construction companies, contractors, developers and funders.

Where needed, we can also tap into expertise from our network of industry experts, including barristers, surveyors and construction consultants.

Click here to view our Building Safety Act page.