Property developers looking to gain finance for developments on the south coast are having trouble according to solicitors Adams & Remers, as banks are unwilling to lend on the projects.

Despite an increasingly buoyant local property market, the company has evidence from two large institutional lenders, who indicated that they were both under instructions to turn down any requests for funding to develop or build property in the area.

David Platt, a partner and head of Adams & Remers commercial property team, said: “There are developers across the South East sitting on land banks that they wish to develop and bring to the market, particularly now as the housing market is beginning to show signs of recovery. However the banks continue to show no appetite to fund such development. Developers can unfortunately expect to continue to see a near complete lack of funding for quite some time yet.”

However, according to Adams & Remers, there are a number of niche areas where developers are finding it relatively easier to access funds, these being healthcare-related projects which are for the Government or primary care trusts as they have full or part-funding in place.

Platt said: “Developers are also seeing profitable work in developing affordable housing schemes, including accommodation for key workers and students. Developers will buy land and develop, with a registered social landlord, university or employer funding the project via staged payments. The only downside is that any profit the developer makes is held back until the project is completed.”

Adams & Remers also pointed out that if a company wished to obtain finance for the acquisition of new-build premises for the company’s own use it would most likely be able to do so. Problems are only arising if the property developer itself is seeking bank finance for the development.