West Midlands council area
Selling Land in Coventry
Checked on
Coventry finished only 47% of the homes the government counted as needed over the last three years, although its monitoring report for the year to 31 March 2025 found 5.91 years of housing land. A review of its plan of December 2017, under examination since September 2025, relies on land inside its tight boundary that the council expects to last until the late 2030s, so brownfield land, small urban sites and the Green Belt edges at Keresley and Eastern Green are where sellers find the openings.
- We pay for the planning, at our own cost and risk
- Your price is agreed up front, in writing
- If planning is refused, you keep your land and owe nothing
In short
We buy land with development potential in Coventry and welcome land of every kind there: fields and paddocks, inherited land, old yards and larger holdings.
Coventry built only 47% of the homes it needed in the government's latest count, and below 75% national policy treats the need for more homes as shown. So a well placed field next to a town or village can make its case now, not only through the local plan, though each site is judged on its merits. Land in the Green Belt faces stricter national tests. Its local plan dates from December 2017, and a new one was submitted for examination in September 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.
The Land We Buy in Coventry
- Yards, workshops, depots and older industrial land in Foleshill, Holbrooks, Radford and the other inner suburbs.
- Plots close to the city centre, where the plan proposes a transition zone of higher densities.
- Garage courts, backland and large gardens across Earlsdon, Canley, Tile Hill and Finham.
- Green Belt fields that sit against Keresley, Eastern Green or the southern edge.
- Safeguarded land and previously developed land on the city's rim.
Coventry sites are often small or hemmed in, so title, access, contamination, the Green Belt line and the planning history are checked before any drawing goes to the council. We meet the cost of that work and of every application, and the option fixes your price before any of it begins, set above the land's worth in its present use. The city sites we take on are described on our brownfield and yards page, and owners of fields on the edge will find more on our farmland page.
Is Your Land in Coventry a Good Fit?
You do not need to know the planning rules to sell land for development in Coventry. These are the things that make a site a strong candidate:
- 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.
Ways to Sell Your Land in Coventry
There are three common ways to sell land with development potential in Coventry. They suit different owners, and the right one depends on whether your land needs planning permission before it is worth more.
- 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.
Selling Land in Coventry: From First Call to Completion
Selling land for development under an option agreement follows the same steps wherever your land is.
- 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.
- A free desktop review. Within a few days we look at your land, the planning position in Coventry and the routes open to it, and tell you plainly whether it suits us. The review is free and confidential, with no obligation.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
What the Local Plan Means If You Are Selling Land in Coventry
Three things shape the chances of selling land for development in Coventry: the government's latest count of homes built against those needed, the council's five-year housing land supply, and where its local plan stands.
Housing Delivery Test 2025
47%
Below 75%: treated as having evidenced unmet housing need under national policy S5.
Five-year housing land supply
5.91 years
Five years or more of deliverable housing land. Position at 31 March 2025, measured against the standard method, 1,393 homes a year, plus a 5% buffer. Stated by Coventry City Council (Authority Monitoring Report 2024/25).
Checked sourceHomes built against homes needed
3,755
of 7,954 needed, April 2022 to March 2025
Most recent strategic plan adopted
December 2017
More than five years old, so its housing figures are usually replaced by the government's standard method.
New plan progress
Latest step
The Local Plan Review was submitted on 9 September 2025. Hearings ran from 24 March to 9 June 2026 and the main modifications were consulted on from 19 August to 1 October 2026; the inspectors then called a further hearing session for 3 November 2026 on the Brickhill Lane employment allocation. The council's page gives no adoption date
Checked source
See how Coventry compares with the other 187 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 planning detail in full
A City Boxed in by the Green Belt on Every Side
Coventry City Council is a metropolitan borough council and decides planning applications for the whole city, an area of about 99 square kilometres that held 345,324 people at the 2021 census. The West Midlands Green Belt surrounds it on all sides, keeping it apart from Birmingham across the Meriden Gap and from towns such as Kenilworth, Nuneaton and Warwick.
- A boundary too small for its need. The plan adopted in December 2017 accepted a need for 42,400 homes between 2011 and 2031 but could fit only 24,600 inside the city, which the examining inspector recorded as 58% of that need.
- Green Belt already released once. To reach even that figure, the inspector's report of October 2017 accepted the "selective release of parcels of Green Belt" for about 7,000 more homes, chiefly at Keresley and Eastern Green.
- A plan review at its last stage. Submitted on 9 September 2025, it has been through hearings and a consultation on main modifications.
- Brownfield doing most of the work. In 2024/25, 53% of the homes completed were on previously developed land, and most of the rest were on farmland already taken out of the Green Belt.
If you own land in Coventry and are thinking of selling it, the city's boundary is the fact behind everything else here, because it makes a yard in Foleshill and a field at the edge of Allesley part of the same search for homes.
Fewer Homes Finished: What the Delivery Result Means for Your Land
Delivery in Coventry has fallen from a very high peak. The council's Authority Monitoring Report for 2024/25, published in December 2025, gives these net completions:
| Year | Net new homes |
|---|---|
| 2021/22 | 3,818 |
| 2022/23 | 1,674 |
| 2023/24 | 1,859 |
| 2024/25 | 805 |
It also records that the Housing Delivery Test 2023, covering 2020/21 to 2022/23, gave the city 180%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 found 3,755 homes against 7,954 required, a result of 47%. The year with 3,818 completions dropped out of the period, and the 2017 plan passed five years old in December 2022, after which the national formula for local housing need, not the plan's figure, sets what the city is expected to build.
The Supply Calculation at 31 March 2025
The monitoring report tests five years of supply against that formula. Its table 13, at a base date of 31 March 2025, sets out:
| Part of the calculation | Council's figure |
|---|---|
| Local housing need, standard method | 1,393 homes a year |
| Yearly figure with a 5% buffer | 1,460 homes |
| Sites with permission, expected in five years | 7,916 homes |
| Other identified sites | 307 homes |
| Windfall allowance | 400 homes |
| Deliverable supply | 8,623 homes |
| Result | 5.91 years |
The calculation used a 5% buffer because at its base date the latest result was that 180%. The Housing Delivery Test 2025 has since put Coventry below 85%, where national policy adds a 20% buffer instead, so the council's figure predates the higher buffer.
Under the August 2026 framework, a result below 75% means policy S5 treats the need for homes as evidenced, but S5 does not apply in the Green Belt, and the land beyond Coventry's built-up edge is Green Belt on every side. For an owner of a field on that edge, the delivery result still matters more than the supply table, because it is what normally meets the separate need test for grey belt while the council's last supply figure sits above five years.
Why Coventry's New Homes Must Now Be Found Inside the City
Because the 2017 plan could not house the whole of the city's need, the councils of the Coventry and Warwickshire housing market area signed a Memorandum of Understanding, which the city council approved on 12 January 2016, to share the shortfall under the duty to cooperate. The monitoring report sets out the split:
| Council | Share of Coventry's unmet need |
|---|---|
| Warwick | 6,640 homes |
| Nuneaton and Bedworth | 5,480 homes |
| Rugby | 2,800 homes |
| Stratford-on-Avon | 2,020 homes |
| North Warwickshire | 860 homes |
| Total | 17,800 homes |
The 2017 inspector noted that every authority except Nuneaton and Bedworth had signed it, and treated the city's 24,600 homes as a minimum. The Warwickshire plans that followed carried those shares, and the effect still shows in some district supply figures, as our Warwickshire county page explains.
A New Plan That Keeps Its Homes at Home
The review changes that arrangement. The Regulation 19 summary of January 2025 planned for a minimum of 29,100 homes from 2021 to 2041, about 1,455 a year, and stated that this "will be fully delivered within Coventry's administrative area". Recommending submission on 26 August 2025, Cabinet's report spoke of the city's "tightly-drawn administrative boundary" and stated that every newly proposed allocation was on previously developed land, with no change to Green Belt boundaries. The main modifications of July 2026 delete that sentence about delivering everything inside the city, as well as policy DS2 on the duty to cooperate. Instead, paragraph 3.9 says the land supply is expected to be sufficient "until the late 2030s", with homes in the Northern Regeneration Area expected from the mid 2030s, and that the plan "will be replaced as necessary" to keep meeting the city's needs.
Jobs are another matter. The modifications record a shortfall of at least 57.23 hectares of employment land against a local requirement of 96 hectares, and set aside 25 hectares at Baginton Fields towards the needs of Coventry and Warwickshire as a whole. The Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce objected to a shortfall left without neighbouring councils' agreement.
For anyone looking to sell land in Coventry, this matters directly: no homes are passed to Warwickshire this time, and the city's own sites are expected to run short in the late 2030s, so the next plan will have to find more land, inside the city or beyond it.
Timing a Sale of Land in Coventry Around the Inspectors' Report
The plan review has moved steadily through its stages. The council's Local Plan Review page records these dates:
| Stage | Dates |
|---|---|
| Issues and options (Regulation 18) | 18 July to 29 September 2023 |
| Proposed submission plan (Regulation 19) | 20 January to 3 March 2025 |
| Submitted for examination | 9 September 2025 |
| Examination hearings | 24 March to 9 June 2026 |
| Consultation on main modifications | 19 August to 1 October 2026 |
| Further hearing session on the Brickhill Lane allocation | 3 November 2026 |
A Lower Target Over a Later Period
The schedule of main modifications of July 2026 resets the housing figure at a minimum of 26,046 homes between 2024 and 2042, about 1,447 a year, in place of 29,100 between 2021 and 2041, and cuts the identified capacity in the supply table to around 22,014 homes. The council's summary of the consultation states that land supply "is expected to be sufficient to meet needs until the late 2030s".
For the five years from 1 April 2027 the plan itself forecasts 8,397 homes against a requirement of 8,621, which it describes as "an anticipated supply of 4.87 years on adoption", and policy H1 is to say that "Housing land will be released in order to maintain a continuous 5 year supply." Sites wholly within the new transition zone around the city centre are expected to reach 125 homes a hectare, and schemes of ten or more homes, or of half a hectare or more, are to provide 25% affordable housing.
The inspectors will consider the 120 responses "before finalising their report", as the council's page puts it.
If you are weighing up when to sell land in Coventry, a plan that expects to start just short of five years, with a policy to release land to keep supply flowing, leaves room for sound sites outside its allocations.
Selling Green Belt Land at Keresley, Eastern Green and the Southern Edge
The land released from the Green Belt in 2017 is now being built, and the council's site proformas for the examination show how far each larger site had got by late 2025:
| Site | Homes now planned | Position recorded by the council |
|---|---|---|
| Keresley urban extension | 3,000 (3,100 in the 2017 plan) | 2,925 homes permitted, 175 short of the 2017 figure |
| Eastern Green urban extension | 3,144 (2,250 in the 2017 plan) | Two outline permissions for 2,966 homes |
| Walsgrave Hill Farm | 700 | No application yet; SEGRO holds an option, with the first 50 homes expected in 2030 |
| Land west of Cromwell Lane | 240 | Under construction by St Philips Homes, forecast by the developer to finish by June 2029 |
The most contested change to the Green Belt is for jobs, not homes: about 20 hectares at Brickhill Lane, with 11.8 hectares of employment land, reached from the A45 Pickford Gate roundabout. Added as a main modification, it drew 87 objections, many about its late introduction and the loss of Green Belt, and the inspectors called a further hearing session on it.
Four Safeguarded Parcels Along the City's Southern Boundary
In the Regulation 19 proposed plan, policy GB2 names four areas of safeguarded land in the Green Belt: land south of Westwood Heath Road, land south of Bishop Ullathorne School, the playing field south of Finham Park School, and land west of Finham Primary School. Their future depends on allocations and safeguarded land in Warwick District not yet built, and the proposed plan describes them as largely used for a small number of low density homes or for schools, or as undevelopable because of ancient woodland. The modified text accepts that, if development in Warwick District goes ahead, some of this land "may no longer serve Green Belt purposes"; if it does not, the proposed plan says the parcels would be considered for a formal return to the Green Belt.
The Routes That Apply on the Rim of the City
- Inside the built-up city. Plots, yards and backland are judged under policy S4, where refusal needs harm that substantially outweighs what the scheme would bring.
- Previously developed land in the Green Belt. Policy GB1 assesses such proposals against national policy, which treats a former depot or a plot with lawful buildings other than farm buildings more kindly than an open field.
- Grey belt fields. Coventry's 47% normally satisfies the grey belt need test at present, but the field must still qualify as grey belt, and larger schemes follow the Golden Rules.
- Safeguarded land and land next to the urban extensions. Here the Green Belt's purposes are most open to question, as the plan itself accepts for the southern parcels.
For an owner of farmland at Keresley, Allesley or Finham, the question our grey belt guide helps answer is how much the field still does to keep the city apart from its neighbours now that the urban extensions have moved the edge.
Before the New Plan Is Adopted: Selling Land in Coventry
The inspectors' report is the next milestone, and the council's page gives no date for adoption, the monitoring report's target of July to September 2026 having passed. Cabinet's minutes of 26 August 2025 record that the plan returns to the full Council for adoption once found sound. From then, its own requirement of 26,046 homes takes over from the national formula as the yardstick for supply, the plan forecasts a little under five years at that point, and policy H1 would commit the council to releasing land to keep supply going.
Supply and Delivery Figures to Come
The council published its monitoring report for the year to 31 March 2025 in December 2025, so a report on the year to March 2026 is the next expected source of a supply figure. The Housing Delivery Test 2025, issued on 17 August 2026, gave Coventry 47%, a shortfall of 4,199 homes. The next edition would normally drop 2022/23 and add 2025/26.
City Plots Now, Edge Land With the Evidence First
- Urban plots and yards can be looked at now under policy S4, without waiting for the report.
- Grey belt land at the edges can be looked at now as well, because the delivery result meets the need test; showing how the field serves Green Belt purposes comes first.
- Larger holdings that need a boundary change belong in the next review of the plan, where our guide to calls for sites and local plans sets out the stages a site passes through.
For owners on the city's edge, the months before adoption are the time to gather a site's evidence, since the 2017 plan and national policy decide applications until then.
Questions About Selling Land in Coventry
My field near Keresley is still in the Green Belt. Has the urban extension changed its prospects?
It can have. A field next to the extension may now do less to stop sprawl or keep places apart. Whether it counts as grey belt is decided field by field, and the delivery result already meets the need test.
The council says it has more than five years of land. Why would my yard in Foleshill carry weight?
Within the city the deciding test is policy S4, so the merits of the yard itself matter more than the supply figure.
I own land near Westwood Heath Road or Finham. What does safeguarded land mean for it?
Safeguarded land stays in the Green Belt for now but is held back for possible development in a later plan. The plan ties the four southern parcels to what happens in Warwick District, and accepts that some may no longer serve Green Belt purposes once that land is built.
Will homes for Coventry still be built in Warwickshire under the new plan?
No. The new plan meets the city's housing need within its own boundary; homes already planned in Warwickshire under the 2016 agreement are a matter for those councils' plans.
Should I wait for the plan to be adopted before putting land forward?
Not usually. A yard or plot in the city can go forward under policy S4 now, and a grey belt field under national policy. Our option agreements guide explains how we take a site on.
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.
More Questions Landowners Selling Land in Coventry Ask
The same questions come up wherever land is put forward. Each is answered in full in our guides, and where Coventry stands on housing shapes which matter most here.
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Selling Land in Coventry? Tell Us About It
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.
More in West Midlands
County overview
Selling Land in the West Midlands
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Neighbouring council · Homes built: 53% of need
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Selling Land in Sandwell
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Selling Land in Walsall
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Selling Land in Wolverhampton
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Neighbouring Councils Beyond the West Midlands
- North WarwickshireWarwickshire · 1.5 years of housing land
- Nuneaton and BedworthWarwickshire · 10.2 years of housing land
- RugbyWarwickshire · 3.4 years of housing land
- WarwickWarwickshire · 1.96 years of housing land
Sources
- Coventry City Council: Local Plan Review
- Coventry City Council: Local Plan Review, schedule of main modifications, version 10 (July 2026)
- Coventry City Council: Main modifications consultation summary report (October 2026)
- Coventry City Council: Housing land supply proformas for allocated sites, response to the inspectors' preliminary questions (November 2025)
- Coventry City Council: Authority Monitoring Report 2024 to 2025 (December 2025)
- Coventry City Council: Local Plan Review, Regulation 19 summary booklet (January 2025)
- Coventry City Council: Regulation 19 Proposed Plan including erratum statement, Cabinet report appendix (2025)
- Coventry City Council: Cabinet minutes, Local Plan Review submission for examination (August 2025)
- Coventry City Council: Coventry Local Plan 2011 to 2031 (adopted December 2017)
- Planning Inspectorate: Report on the examination of the Coventry Local Plan (October 2017)
- Wikipedia: Coventry
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.