Selling Land in Nottinghamshire

• It sits next to, or is well related to, an existing town or village.
• A safe access onto a public road is possible, even if it needs work.
• Most of the land is outside the highest flood risk zone.
• It is not covered by a strong designation such as a Site of Special Scientific Interest.
• It is about 2 acres or more, or part of a larger holding.
• Everyone who owns it is willing to consider one clear, agreed price.

If your land does not tick every box, ask anyway. Many of the sites we take on have a problem to solve, whether that is access, drainage, a tenancy or an awkward boundary, and solving those problems is our job.

1. A first conversation. You call us or send the form on this page. We need only your postcode, your name and a phone number or email.
2. A free desktop review. Within a few days we look at your land, the planning position in Nottinghamshire and the routes open to it, and tell you plainly whether it suits us. The review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
3. Heads of terms and the option agreement. If it suits, we agree a price with you in writing, then the option agreement itself. We contribute to your solicitor's and land agent's fees, so it costs you nothing to get it done properly.
4. The planning work, at our cost. We pay for the surveys, the design, the planning application and any appeal. You carry on farming, grazing or letting the land as you do now.
5. Completion. If planning 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.

How selling land for development works, step by step gives the detail of each stage and how long it usually takes.

The Nottingham and Derby Green Belt

The Green Belt was set up to stop Nottingham and Derby spreading and merging with the towns around them. It wraps round the city on all sides and covers much of the open land in Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe close to the city. Since December 2024, land in the Green Belt that does not strongly contribute to its purposes can be treated as grey belt. For housing, grey belt carries a need test too, generally met by a supply under five years or a delivery score below 75%. With no council here under that line, the need has to come from the supply position, which meets the test today in Ashfield, Broxtowe, Gedling and Newark and Sherwood but not in Rushcliffe or Nottingham. Bigger schemes also face the Golden Rules on affordable homes, infrastructure and green space. Previously developed land in the Green Belt, such as old yards, can also qualify. Our grey belt guide explains the test.

The Trent Flood Plain

The Trent is the biggest planning constraint in the county after the Green Belt. Its flood plain is wide from Attenborough and the Nottingham embankments down through Newark and on past the Bassetlaw villages towards Gainsborough. Many riverside villages have land in Flood Zones 2 and 3, and the Idle, the Leen, the Greet and the Soar add their own risk. A site partly in Flood Zone 3 is not always ruled out, because the homes can often be kept to the drier land. Our guide to flood risk and building land explains more.

Sherwood Forest

Parts of Sherwood are being considered as a possible future Special Protection Area for nightjar and woodlark, and the Birklands and Bilhaugh woods are already a Special Area of Conservation. The bird area is not designated, but Natural England advises councils to take a risk-based approach. Mansfield's habitats assessment of August 2026 checks homes within 400 metres of the bird area for urbanisation effects, and uses a zone of 8.9 kilometres for recreational pressure on the woods, with section 106 funding for alternative green space the usual answer. We check this for land in Mansfield, Newark and Sherwood, Gedling and Ashfield.

Heritage and Infrastructure

Newark, Southwell, Worksop and many smaller places have conservation areas and important listed buildings, and heritage settings often shape layout and density. The A1, A46, A52 and M1 carry heavy traffic, and junction capacity and sewage treatment are raised on many larger schemes.

Selling land near Sherwood or the Trent is therefore often a question of where on a holding the homes can go, since a buffer zone or a flood zone tends to shape a site rather than rule it out.

No Nottinghamshire council is below 75% in the Housing Delivery Test, so unmet need is not automatic anywhere here. Where a council is short of five years of land, the shortfall is still evidence of unmet need to weigh under policy S5, though S5 does not apply in the Green Belt, where it counts towards the grey belt need test instead. The routes that do work depend on which half of the county your land is in:

1. Local plan allocation. The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan is still at examination, with the inspectors' note on housing supply of 10 August 2026 answered by the councils in September. Gedling's plan is due for submission in December 2026 and Ashfield's is under examination. Our guide to calls for sites and local plans sets out each of the stages.
2. Applications outside the Green Belt. Where supply is short, as around Newark or Sutton-in-Ashfield, a site that sits well against the town can be put forward now.
3. Grey belt around Nottingham. Fields that do little to stop sprawl or merging, and old yards and buildings in the Green Belt, can qualify where need is evidenced, and larger schemes must meet the Golden Rules.
4. Sites inside towns and villages. Within a built-up area, policy S4 leans towards approval.
5. Previously developed land. Former pit sites, depots and yards, which national policy supports reusing.
6. Sites near stations. National policy supports higher density homes close to well-connected stations. Whether that applies depends on the station and its service.
7. Neighbourhood plans. Many villages in Rushcliffe, Newark and Sherwood and Bassetlaw have neighbourhood plans, some of which allocate sites.

Around Nottingham, the Green Belt test decides most things. Further north, the question is usually flood risk, access and fit with the plan. In both cases the planning work costs money and takes time, which is why our agreements put those costs on our side.