Selling Land in Sevenoaks

• Land inside or on the edge of Sevenoaks, Swanley, Edenbridge, Westerham and the larger villages.
• Former nurseries, yards, depots, equestrian sites and other previously developed land, including in the Green Belt.
• Fields enclosed by existing homes, roads or railways, where the Green Belt contribution may be limited.
• Land within walking distance of a station with a frequent service.
• Sites with a road frontage or a realistic route to one.
• Bigger landholdings able to add to the growth the new Local Plan proposes.

Land on the chalk slopes of the Darent valley, or in the High Weald in the south of the district, is not ruled out, but the bar there is higher and we will be straight with you about the prospects.

• An outright sale. You sell the land as it stands today, privately or at auction. The price is what a buyer will pay for it without planning permission, and the buyer takes on everything that follows.
• A conditional contract. You agree a sale now, but it only completes if planning permission is granted. Until then you keep the land, and the agreement sets out who applies for permission and who pays.
• An option agreement, the route we use. We agree your price at the start, in writing, set above what your land is worth today. We then pay for and run all of the planning work, at our own cost and risk. If permission is granted, we complete the purchase and you receive the agreed price on completion. If it is not, you keep your land and owe nothing.

For land that needs planning permission before it is worth more, an option means you know your price before any work starts and never spend a penny on planning. The ways to sell land for development, compared sets out each route in full.

Any Housing Delivery Test score under 75% engages policy S5 of the August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework. S5 supports homes beyond a settlement boundary where the land sits well against the town or village beside it, so on paper a paddock on the edge of Edenbridge or West Kingsdown ought to benefit.

It rarely works that simply here. S5 is switched off in the Green Belt, and in this district the Green Belt runs right up to the back gardens of almost every settlement, from Swanley to Edenbridge. Even after the new plan, the council intends to keep 98% of its Green Belt protected. The low score therefore does its real work in three narrower situations:

1. Inside the towns the Green Belt surrounds. The council's Core Strategy describes Sevenoaks, Swanley and Edenbridge as each surrounded by Green Belt, so the built-up areas themselves sit outside it. A disused yard in Swanley or a large garden in Sevenoaks town is judged under policy S4, which leans firmly towards approval and allows refusal only where the harm would substantially exceed what the scheme brings.
2. Grey belt. Land that plays only a weak part in holding back outer London, or in keeping neighbouring places such as Swanley and Hextable apart, can count as grey belt. The council's shortfall matters here, because a shortage of homes is one of the conditions national policy sets before homes on grey belt land can be approved. The council has itself judged that Pedham Place, its largest proposed site, is not grey belt, which shows how closely each parcel is tested.
3. Previously developed land. Former nurseries, yards, depots and other land with lawful buildings or hardstanding have their own routes under Green Belt policy. The draft plan leans on this kind of land in the town too, proposing that the One 60 office building on London Road, Sevenoaks, be converted into around 300 homes.

Any scheme on Green Belt land here must also meet the Golden Rules on affordable housing, infrastructure and green space. Both the grey belt test and those rules are covered in our grey belt guide.

The Kent Downs National Landscape's own character assessment traces the Darent valley within its boundary from Westerham to Farningham, taking in Shoreham and Eynsford, with steep, often wooded chalk scarps on either side of the river. The High Weald covers the south of the district.

National policy gives great weight to the landscape and scenic beauty of both, and major development inside them is only allowed in exceptional circumstances. Smaller schemes can still be possible where they respect the setting, but the bar is higher and the design work is more demanding. Land just outside the boundaries is judged on how it affects views from the higher ground, which is often the deciding issue on the edge of Sevenoaks town and in the Darent valley.

For an owner selling land in the Darent valley, or on the edge of Sevenoaks town, a landscape and visual appraisal is therefore often the first piece of evidence we commission, at our cost.

A Fresh Supply Position

The council's newest five year supply statement, published in July 2026 and measured forward from 1 April 2026, finds 3.59 years of deliverable sites. It measures supply against the government figure plus a 20% buffer for past under delivery, which comes to 6,984 homes over five years. A shortfall that size adds weight wherever an application must show that homes are needed.

The same statement records the council's own completions: 145 homes in 2024/25 and 252 in 2025/26, of which sites of one to four homes supplied 55 and 59. For the owner of a paddock or a large garden, small schemes clearly still count here.

Delivery is the second measure. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, published on 17 August 2026, is the current release, and the government repeats the exercise every year. The 252 homes of 2025/26 should form the newest year of the next one. We would not put a number on it, but climbing from 25% to 75% in a single release would need far more building than those completions show. Even a better result would leave the Green Belt routes above unchanged.

With the Regulation 19 consultation closed on 17 September 2026, the council is working through the responses before submission. Changes of substance at this stage would normally mean consulting again, so the published sites are likely to be the ones the inspector examines.

Hearings for Consulted Land, Applications for the Rest

For land that was put forward in that consultation, the hearings expected in 2027 are where it will be argued, and the evidence is best prepared over winter 2026/27. For land that was not, an application is usually the more direct route in the coming year, starting with previously developed and grey belt sites, where the supply shortfall helps. Neither comes with a promise; we will say which, if either, suits your land.