Hertfordshire has one of the busiest development exit markets outside London. Bridging lenders and specialist banks registered a third more charges against the county's development companies over the last year than the year before. Developers are borrowing more, and the lenders who fund the exit are following.
We looked at Companies House charges, Land Registry sales and council planning records across the ten Hertfordshire districts for the year to June 2026. The full breakdown, with charts and a national comparison, is in the Hertfordshire development exit report. Here is what it means for a bridge at the end of a scheme.
Exit lending up by a third
The most direct measure of the exit market is how many charges bridging lenders, specialist banks and private credit funds register against companies whose business is building. In Hertfordshire that came to 128 charges in the 12 months to June 2026, up from 95 the year before, a 35% rise. 86 different developers took them.
The split was 70 from specialist banks and 58 from bridging lenders. The first half of 2026 alone brought 67 charges, against 45 in the first half of 2025. Across England and Wales the same measure rose by about 3%, so Hertfordshire is well ahead of the national trend.
Development lending rising too
Development lenders registered 210 new charges against Hertfordshire sites and developers over the year, up 28% on the 164 of the year before. 116 of those came in the first half of 2026.
Repayments have not kept pace. 84 development charges were filed as satisfied in the year, slightly fewer than the 87 of the year before, which gives 0.40 repayments for every new charge. That matches the national ratio, and recent filings are still coming in.
Schemes are running long
The development loans repaid in Hertfordshire over the year had been in place for a median of 34.4 months. That is well beyond a typical 18 to 24 month development facility, and longer than the national median of 26.1 months.
The live book tells the same story. Of the 930 development charges still live across the county at 30 June 2026, 61.9% had been registered more than 24 months earlier, against 60.6% nationally, and 68.6% were older than 18 months.
Long-running schemes are where bridging earns its place. When a development facility nears expiry with units unsold, an exit bridge can repay the development lender, usually at a lower rate than an extension or default interest, and give the sales period time to run.
New homes still sell at a premium
Land Registry records new-build sales up to a year late, so we read them over the latest settled year, August 2024 to July 2025. Hertfordshire recorded 1,265 new-build sales, close to the 1,308 of the year before, and new-build made up 7.6% of all sales.
New-build flats sold at a median of £352,500, 35.6% above existing flats. New-build houses sold at a median of £573,650, 10.3% above existing houses. Across the whole market, sales were up 4.3% on the year over the latest settled 12 months, at 15,781.
For an exit lender the flat premium is the useful figure. Many Hertfordshire schemes finishing now are flatted, and evidence that new flats sell well above the resale market supports lending against the completed value.
A large pipeline
The six Hertfordshire councils in our planning data approved 842 residential applications in their latest 12-month window, with 432 more pending. Where an approval states a unit count, the total is at least 4,910 homes. The largest include 452 homes on land at West Hemel Hempstead and 408 homes on the Land East of Stevenage site, approved in June 2026. Broxbourne, North Hertfordshire, Three Rivers and Welwyn Hatfield are not yet in our data, so the true pipeline is larger.
Company formation points the same way. 1,468 development and property companies were registered in Hertfordshire in the year to June 2026, 639 of them as developers.
Who lends here
Across every property charge in the county, specialist lenders hold 86.6% of those we can match to a lender type, a little below the national 88.4%. Mainstream banks still do more of the lending here than in many areas. For development exits, though, most of the lending comes from specialist banks and bridging lenders.
Planning your exit
- Look at your facility end date now. With a median of almost three years to repayment across the county, many schemes will overrun their original term.
- Use local sales evidence. The new-build flat premium and steady volumes give you something concrete to put in front of an exit lender.
- Compare offers. Exit lending to Hertfordshire developers grew by a third, so there is competition for well-presented cases.
We arrange development exit bridging across Hertfordshire, from Watford and St Albans to Stevenage and Hertford. Every case is underwritten on its own merits, so terms depend on the scheme, the sales evidence and the borrower, and no facility is guaranteed. Bridging for business and investment purposes is unregulated lending. If a loan would be secured on a home you or your family live in, it may be regulated and we will refer you to an authorised firm.
Data: Companies House charge register and company data, HM Land Registry Price Paid Data and council planning records, analysed by Construction Capital. Lenders are grouped by type and never named. A charge is a security document, so counts show loans taken and repaid, not their value.