Selling Land in West Sussex

• 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 West Sussex 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.

Water Neutrality and Its Removal

In September 2021 Natural England advised that new development supplied from Southern Water's Sussex North supply zone, which takes in Horsham, Crawley and parts of Chichester district and the National Park, had to be water neutral. The concern was water abstraction harming protected wetlands in the Arun Valley. For four years that slowed or stopped many housing schemes. In October 2025, after Southern Water and the Environment Agency agreed a cap on the abstraction licence, Natural England withdrew its advice. New homes still have to meet a tighter water efficiency standard of 110 litres per person per day, but no longer have to offset their water use. Councils have been working through the backlog since.

The South Downs National Park

The National Park runs east to west across the county, from the Hampshire border near Petersfield to beyond the Adur. It has the highest level of landscape protection, and its own planning authority. Land just outside the boundary, on the edge of towns such as Worthing, Lancing and Storrington, is judged on its effect on views to and from the Downs.

The High Weald and Chichester Harbour

The High Weald National Landscape covers much of the north east, around East Grinstead and the villages south of Crawley. Chichester Harbour National Landscape covers the harbour and its shoreline villages west of Chichester. Major development inside either is only allowed in exceptional circumstances. In Chichester district, new homes that drain to the harbour also have to be nutrient neutral, because nitrogen is harming its protected waters.

Ashdown Forest

Ashdown Forest, just over the border in East Sussex, is protected for its heathland birds. New homes within a set distance of it, including around East Grinstead, pay towards managing visitors and alternative green space.

A Low Coastal Plain, Three Rivers and the Lavant

The coastal plain around Selsey, Bognor Regis, Littlehampton, Shoreham and Lancing is low lying and at risk of tidal flooding. The Arun, the Adur and the western Rother have wide floodplains, and the chalk around Chichester is prone to groundwater flooding along the Lavant. Land in Flood Zones 2 and 3 faces the sequential test, though the developable area can often be kept to the drier part of a field. Our guide to flood risk explains how.

With water neutrality gone, the constraints an owner selling land here faces are mostly fixed and mapped, from the Park boundary to the flood zones, so our review can usually say early which of them apply.

Horsham is where things have changed most. It is below 75%, it has no Green Belt, and the water neutrality barrier has gone. That gives well-located land on the edge of its towns and villages a clearer route than at any time in recent years. Crawley and Adur are also below 75%, but have little open land. Elsewhere, supply shortfalls open a route too, and only in Worthing is the plan usually the way in. In practice we look at:

1. A planning application under policy S5. In Horsham, and on the few open sites around Crawley and Adur, unmet need is treated as evidenced. In Arun, Chichester and Mid Sussex the supply shortfall is evidence to weigh, not an automatic finding. Either way, land that adjoins a town or larger village can be put forward now.
2. Local plan allocation. Horsham and Mid Sussex have plans at examination, and every council will be preparing plans under the new system. Our local plans guide sets out the stages.
3. Previously developed land. Old yards, nurseries and commercial sites, which national policy supports inside and outside settlements.
4. Sites near stations. National policy now supports higher density homes within walking distance of well-connected stations, depending on the station and its service.
5. Early work on biodiversity and drainage. Showing the 10% biodiversity net gain and a workable drainage plan early makes a site easier to approve.

If a developer or agent approached you between 2021 and 2025 and walked away because of water neutrality, it may be worth looking at your land again.