Nottinghamshire council area

Selling Land in Nottingham

Checked on 30 September 2026

Nottingham is a compact city whose boundary is drawn tight around its built-up area, so almost all its new homes go on land used before. The council has more than five years of housing land on its own latest count, and where the next homes go now turns on a joint strategic plan past its hearings, a new city plan at scoping and a paused proposal to enlarge the city.

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In short

We buy land in Nottingham and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.

Nottingham can show 6.57 years of housing land, more than the five years national policy expects, and built 108% of the homes it needed in the government's latest count. So the surest routes here are the local plan, for land on the edge of towns and villages, and sites within them, where national policy generally supports new homes. Its local plan dates from September 2014, and a new one was submitted for examination in December 2025.

We look for 2 acres or more next to, or well related to, a town or village, with a road frontage or a way to get one.

The next step is a free, confidential desktop review. We tell you which route, if any, suits your land, with no obligation.

Nottingham in Figures

The government's latest figures for the council, its latest five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.

Housing Delivery Test 2025
108%
Meeting its housing requirement.
Five-year housing land supply
6.57 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 31 March 2025, measured against the standard method, 1,306 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Nottingham City Council.
Checked source
Homes built against homes needed
5,863
of 5,444 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
September 2014
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
Joint Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan with Broxtowe and Rushcliffe submitted in December 2025, hearings closed on 23 July 2026 and the councils replied to the inspectors on 16 September 2026; a new Nottingham City Local Plan started with a notice of intention on 30 June 2026 and a scoping consultation from 23 September 2026 with a closing date of 28 October 2026; the council's timetable of June 2026 puts submission on 29 September 2028 and adoption on 30 April 2029
Checked source

See how Nottingham compares with the other 166 councils we cover

Sources: Housing Delivery Test: 2025 measurement, MHCLG, published 17 August 2026; Local plans: monitoring progress, Planning Inspectorate, August 2026. Local plans move quickly, so always check the council's own website for the latest position.

The Land We Look for in Nottingham

Yards, depots, garages and former commercial or industrial land inside the city.
Plots, backland and large gardens in the suburbs, from Bulwell and Bestwood to Wollaton and Clifton.
Sites and buildings near tram stops and stations.
Previously developed land within the Green Belt pockets at Bulwell, Clifton, Colwick and the business park.
Land in the neighbouring districts on the city's edge, which we assess under those councils' own plans.

Rural exception sites rarely arise inside the city, but small sites do, and policy S4 judges them on their merits whatever the supply figure says, so land here is still worth talking to us about. We pay for the work that decides a city site, from contamination and drainage to access and the mix of homes, under an option whose price is set at the outset, higher than the site is worth in its present use. You keep using it until completion, and should permission not come, the site stays yours with nothing to pay back. Our brownfield and yards page covers this kind of land.

The planning detail in full

A Core City of 75 Square Kilometres, Ringed by Four Districts

Nottingham City Council has been a unitary council since 1998, so it decides planning applications in the city and prepares its own plans, without the county and district split found elsewhere in Nottinghamshire. The city covers about 75 square kilometres and had 323,632 residents at the 2021 Census, from Bulwell in the north to Clifton across the Trent.

Neighbours on every side. The council's Green Belt review notes that the city boundary "is constrained by the surrounding District Councils of Ashfield, Broxtowe, Gedling and Rushcliffe".
Two plans, both to 2028. The Aligned Core Strategies of September 2014 hold the strategic policies; the Part 2 Land and Planning Policies Document, adopted on 13 January 2020, carries 74 site allocations.
Delivery against the national test. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 counts 5,863 homes built for 5,444 required, a result of 108%.
Little Green Belt. The Part 2 plan says that "the City Council's tight administrative boundaries mean that there is little Green Belt land within the City Council area".
Two rivers. The Trent runs along the south of the city and the Leen through its north and west, and the council's scoping document finds "significant flood risk, particularly within parts of the River Trent corridor, Waterside and along the River Leen".

A Supply 2,147 Homes Above the Line

The council's Housing Land Availability Report, published in November 2025 with a base date of 31 March 2025, finds 6.57 years. The Aligned Core Strategies passed five years old in September 2019, so the report tests supply against national standard method need, not the figure written into the plan:

Source: Nottingham City Council, Housing Land Availability Report as at 31 March 2025 (November 2025), tables 2 and 4.
Part of the calculation	Council's figure
Standard method need	1,306 homes a year, 6,530 over five years
Buffer	5%, "the minimum in the NPPF for all authorities"
Five-year requirement with buffer	6,857 homes, or 1,371 a year
Homes under construction	3,242
Full permission, outline permission and prior approval	2,956, 751 and 25
Allocated and other sites without permission	391 and 205
After a 4.5% allowance for schemes never built	7,375 (7,570 less 195)
Windfall allowance	1,679 (103 a year on small sites for three years, then 685 a year)
Demolitions	minus 50
Total supply	9,004 homes
Result	6.57 years

Most of the figure rests on homes being built or already permitted, with only 391 on allocations still waiting for consent. Windfall supplies about 19%, which the report justifies because city sites "were mainly formerly used for non-housing uses and may become available at short notice".

The report also runs an alternative sum, labelled the Sedgefield method, which offsets the 2,818 homes built above the plan requirement between 2011 and 2025 against the next five years, giving 11.14 years. Both figures are the council's own; we use the first, which treats the past as spent, as the joint plan's inspectors did for the plan's need figure in finding earlier under or over supply "irrelevant for the purposes of the Plan". Either way the city is above five years.

What More Than Five Years Means for Land Here

With a delivery result of 108% and 6.57 years, neither usual sign of unmet need is present. Policy S5 of the August 2026 framework can back homes on a site well related to an existing settlement, where infrastructure serves it and unmet need is evidenced, and a supply shortfall, where one exists, is evidence to weigh rather than an automatic finding. Inside the city the test that counts is policy S4, under which building within the urban area is approved unless its harm would substantially outweigh its benefits, with no part for the supply figure.

Student Rooms in the Count, and a Market That Has Cooled

The supply report states that "Purpose-built student units (dwellings) are included in the figures", and the city's completions, student dwellings included, were 1,943 in 2022/23, 2,015 in 2023/24 and 1,905 in 2024/25. That market has cooled. The council's Student Accommodation Update Report of March 2026 records:

About 29,900 occupied purpose-built beds in 2025/26.
A reported vacancy rate of 12.7% across the schemes of 50 beds or more that answered its survey, rising to 16.1% in studios, against 11.6% in cluster flats.
About 5,500 more bedspaces in the pipeline, from schemes that have planning permission or are likely to get it.

The report concludes that "future PBSA development must be more closely aligned to genuine need", and warns that most conversions of student blocks to co-living "will constitute a material change of use requiring planning permission". So a plot once drawn up for student rooms may now suit family houses, flats or later living, and we compare them before any design starts.

Green Belt in Four Pockets, and One Release at Clifton

The Nottingham and Derby Green Belt wraps the city, but little of it lies inside the boundary. The council's Green Belt Review Background Paper of January 2016 describes the city's share as "very limited" and groups it into four areas:

Source: Nottingham City Council, Green Belt Review Background Paper, publication version (January 2016), figure 3.
Area in the review	What the council lists there
North	Bulwell, including Bulwell Hall Park, Nottingham City Golf Club and land west of Seller's Wood Drive West
West	Nottingham Business Park and land west of Bilborough Road
South	Clifton, to its north west and east
East	Colwick, with Colwick Woods and Colwick Park and the racecourse

The Part 2 plan's review found that "all areas of Green Belt continue to serve Green Belt purposes" and released one site for new homes, the former Fairham College in Clifton (allocation SR51). Several of the places listed are parkland, woodland, a golf course or the racecourse.

How the Grey Belt Test Reads in the City

Grey belt is Green Belt land that is previously developed or does not strongly contribute to checking sprawl, keeping towns apart or protecting historic towns. Policy S5 does not apply in the Green Belt; instead, housing on grey belt land has its own need test, usually met by a supply below five years or a delivery result below 75%. Nottingham shows neither today, so a grey belt case for homes on open land is hard to make. A yard or former commercial site with lawful buildings in the Green Belt has a separate route that does not turn on those figures, though farm buildings do not count. Larger schemes face the Golden Rules, set out in our grey belt guide.

The new city plan leaves the door open: its scoping document asks "whether any review of Green Belt land within Nottingham is needed, taking account of the final national policy position".

The Joint Plan, and a City Trajectory That Falls After 2031

The Greater Nottingham Strategic Plan, prepared by the city with Broxtowe and Rushcliffe and sent for examination in December 2025, would replace the Aligned Core Strategies; our Nottinghamshire page gives the county view. Two findings bear on the city. The inspectors' post hearing note of 10 August 2026 agreed to delete the former Stanton Tip, a mixed use allocation in the city's Part 2 plan (policy RE7), finding it "now unlikely to come forward within the plan period". And the councils' reply, published on 16 September 2026, re-ran the city's figures:

Source: Greater Nottingham councils, response to the inspectors' Post Hearing Note 1 on housing supply (GNC35, September 2026).
Nottingham in the revised figures	Councils' figure
Local housing need used at the examination, with a 35% uplift for cities and urban centres	About 1,780 homes a year, 28,480 over 2025 to 2041
Revised city trajectory, 2025/26 to 2040/41	23,075 homes, about 1,442 a year
Net supply over the five years from 31 December 2026	10,243 homes
Five-year supply against the trajectory figure, with a 5% buffer	6.76 years
Five-year supply against the examination need figure, with a 5% buffer	5.48 years

Two Need Figures for One City

The 1,780 a year at the examination and the 1,306 in the supply statement differ mainly because the first adds a 35% uplift for cities and urban centres; without it, the two sit close.

The trajectory peaks at 3,507 homes in 2030/31, falls to 675 a year for the last three years, and over 2025 to 2041 comes to 5,405 fewer homes than the examination need figure. The city's identified land runs thin in the 2030s, and finding more is the next city plan's job.

A national rule in force for decisions since 1 July 2026 lifts the buffer to 20% where a requirement adopted within the past five years was tested under a framework predating December 2024 and sits at or below 80% of standard method need. It does not reach Nottingham today, because the city's requirement dates from 2014 and supply is measured against the standard method. Once the joint plan is adopted, the test would turn on its city requirement, and the figure the councils modelled, about 1,442 a year, is above the 1,306 in the supply statement.

A New City Plan, From Scoping to April 2029

The council published a notice of intention on 30 June 2026 to prepare a new Nottingham City Local Plan under the new plan-making system. Its scoping consultation opened on 23 September 2026 with a closing date of 28 October 2026, and the council said that "At this stage, we are not consulting on specific planning policies, site allocations or a preferred development strategy." Its timetable of 30 June 2026 sets out the stages:

From Nottingham City Council's local plan timetable of 30 June 2026. Dates are the council's and may move.
Stage	Council's timetable
Gateway 1 self-assessment summary	30 October 2026
Plan content and evidence consultation	Winter 2027, six weeks, date to be confirmed
Proposed Local Plan consultation	Summer 2028, eight weeks, date to be confirmed
Submission for examination	29 September 2028
Adoption	30 April 2029

The scoping document of September 2026 describes "a tightly drawn boundary with almost no scope for greenfield expansion, making brownfield delivery essential but also challenging", and notes brownfield costs from contamination and flood risk to complex ownership. Its regeneration areas are Broad Marsh, a new mixed-use district "featuring more than 1,000 homes", the Island Quarter, Waterside, the Station Growth Zone with the Southern Gateway, Castle Meadow Campus and the Boots site.

It also says that "A separate Call for Sites process is expected later". The stages from a call for sites to allocation are explained in our guide to local plans.

Nottingham Between an Inspectors' Report and a Larger Council

The council's Local Development Scheme of November 2025, written before the plan was submitted, expected the inspectors' report on the joint plan in November 2026 and adoption in December 2026. Adoption would give the city strategic policies less than five years old for the first time since 2019.

The Next Land Report and the Next Delivery Test

The Housing Land Availability Report is annual; the latest, based at 31 March 2025, came out in November 2025, and we would not guess the next result. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 was published on 17 August 2026. At 108%, the city clears all three thresholds: under 95% the council would need an action plan, under 85% a 20% buffer would be added, and under 75% the need for homes would be taken as evidenced. With completions close to 2,000 a year, student rooms included, softer demand for student beds is the thing to watch.

A City Council That Could Grow

On 16 July 2026 the government confirmed plans for two unitary councils across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, one covering "the current local government areas of Nottingham City and parts of Broxtowe, Gedling, and Rushcliffe". On 7 September 2026 the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire programme was among 14 areas paused for a national review. Until it ends, the city council remains the planning authority for today's city.

Which Land to Look at When

Sites inside the city, and previously developed land in the Green Belt pockets, can be reviewed now, as neither waits for a plan.
Larger sites that need an allocation or a Green Belt change are best prepared for the city's call for sites and its winter 2027 consultation on plan content.

Questions About Land in Nottingham

I own an old yard in Bulwell. Does the council's surplus of housing land count against me?

Not usually. A yard inside the built-up area is judged under policy S4, which leans towards approval whatever the supply figure. Contamination, access and flood risk near the Leen matter more, and we survey them at our cost.

Is Green Belt land at Clifton or Colwick grey belt?

Some might be, but the council's review found its Green Belt still serves its purposes, and the housing need test is not met today. Previously developed land there has its own route; open land is better prepared for the new city plan.

My building was drawn up for student rooms. Should it be something else now?

It may be. The council's March 2026 report found a vacancy rate of 12.7% in the larger student schemes it surveyed. Flats, family homes or later living may suit the site better, and we compare them before any design is drawn.

The new city plan is only at scoping. When can I put my site forward?

The council expects a separate call for sites after scoping, and its timetable has a consultation on plan content in winter 2027. Evidence on contamination, drainage and access takes months, so starting early means the site is ready when the call opens.

If Nottingham is enlarged, will my land in Gedling or Rushcliffe become city land?

It could come under a larger council if the July 2026 decision goes ahead, but that decision is paused, and until any change the districts decide applications on their own plans.

What price will you pay for my land?

We agree a fixed price with you at the start, before any planning work begins, and it is set above what your land is worth today. We cannot name a figure before we have looked at your land, because it depends on the site itself: its size, its access, how many homes it could take and the costs that come off land value, such as affordable housing, road works and drainage. After the free desktop review we can talk about a price, and once agreed it is written into the agreement.

When would I be paid?

You receive the agreed price on completion, once planning permission has been secured. The agreement sets out the milestones along the way, and it continues while any planning application or appeal is being decided. Until completion you carry on using your land as you do now, and we pay for all of the planning. If permission is not granted, you keep your land and owe nothing.

Tell Us About Your Land in Nottingham

It takes about two minutes. We only need your postcode, your name and a phone number or email; the rest helps us look properly.

We reply within 2 working days, by phone or email, whichever you prefer.
The desktop review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
If we agree terms, we pay for all of the planning, which on a larger site can reach £300,000.

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Sources

Figures on this page come from the Housing Delivery Test 2025 (published 17 August 2026) and the Planning Inspectorate's local plan monitoring to August 2026, with newer plan milestones checked on 24 September 2026. We update the page when new results or plan milestones are published. Planning positions change quickly, so always check the council's own website before relying on it.