Some property is worth far more with planning permission than without it.
Merestones works with owners across the UK to find out whether a site has development potential, then funds and runs the planning work needed to prove it, in partnership with LandCapital. A paddock, a long garden, a commercial property, a redundant building. You pay nothing until it sells.
The arrangement, in plain terms
Most owners never find out whether their property has development value, because finding out is slow, technical and expensive. An option agreement moves that cost and that risk off you and onto us.
It applies to more than fields. Paddocks and grazing land, long or side gardens, backland behind existing houses, yards, car parks, redundant barns and workshops, commercial premises on short leases, and small brownfield plots are all handled the same way.
We agree a price for your property now — fixed, in writing — together with the right, but not the obligation, to buy it at that price if planning permission is granted. That right runs for a set period, commonly two years, with a further twelve months if an appeal becomes necessary. You keep the freehold until the day it sells.
During that period LandCapital pays for everything the application needs: the planning consultant, the architect, the surveys, the legal work. If permission is granted, the option is exercised and you are paid the agreed price on completion. If permission is refused, the option simply lapses. You have spent nothing, the property is yours, and you are free to do whatever you like with it.
The price we agree at the outset is the price you are paid — all of it, and the only payment you receive. It does not rise if permission comes through for more than we expected, and it does not fall if the application costs more than we budgeted. There is no profit share and no percentage of the eventual sale. What you are buying is certainty: a figure fixed in writing before a penny is spent, in exchange for carrying none of the cost and none of the planning risk. We carry both, and the difference between your price and what the site is finally worth is what pays for carrying them.
Authorised Partner of LandCapital
LandCapital provides the structural funding, legal framework, and specialist planning architecture for our property acquisitions. All planning costs are fully covered by LandCapital, with transaction safety guaranteed through fixed option agreements and independent solicitor representation.
How it runs
Four stages. The third one is long, and anyone who tells you otherwise has not taken a site through a local planning authority.
A first look, at no charge
A desk review of your site against the local plan: allocations, settlement boundaries, and constraints such as flood zone, green belt, conservation areas, listed buildings and highway access, together with how the council has decided comparable applications nearby. You get a short written opinion — including the opinion that it is not worth pursuing, if that is the answer.
Two to three weeks. No fee, no obligation.
Appraisal and heads of terms
If it looks promising, the numbers are modelled properly by Merestones and the site goes to LandCapital's investment team for funding review. On a green light we agree heads of terms: the price, the length of the option, and the conditions attached to it. Your own solicitor reviews everything before anything is signed, and LandCapital pays the legal costs of putting the option in place. Nothing about this stage should feel rushed.
Four to twelve months from first contact to a signed option.
Planning
The long part. Pre-application discussions with the council, technical surveys — ecology, transport, drainage, ground conditions, heritage where it applies — a scheme drawn up with an architect, consultation with neighbours and the parish or town council, then the application itself. Where a site needs to be argued into a local plan, or an appeal is required, this takes longer. LandCapital appoints and pays the whole team; you are kept informed at each stage without having to manage any of it.
Twelve to eighteen months through to sale, on a typical site.
Sale and payment
With consent secured the site goes to a buyer — usually through LandCapital's buyer network, and usually as a back-to-back completion, where the buyer's funds are used to exercise the option and pay you on the same day. Some sites are built out instead. Either way you are paid the price agreed at the outset, in full, on completion.
Most owners are paid nine to twenty-four months after first contact.
What it costs you
The short answer is nothing, until the site sells. The longer answer is below, and all of it is written into the agreement.
- The first appraisal
- No charge, and no commitment either way.
- Planning costs
- Paid by LandCapital — planning consultant, architect, surveys, design work, application and appeal fees. On a typical small site that runs to £30,000–£50,000, and considerably more on larger ones. None of it is recharged to you, in any circumstances.
- If permission is refused
- You pay nothing. The option lapses and the property is yours, unencumbered.
- Legal fees
- LandCapital pays the legal costs of putting the option in place.
- What you are paid
- A fixed price, agreed and written down before any work begins — typically 20%–45% above what the property is worth in its current use. It does not move with the market, the cost of the application, or the eventual sale price.
- Option period
- Two years is standard, with a twelve-month extension if an appeal is running.
- Overage
- Available where a site warrants it — a further payment to you if the property later changes hands above an agreed figure. To be documented at heads of terms.
- Using it in the meantime
- Nothing changes. Carry on farming it, parking on it, letting it or living beside it. The only access we need is occasional, arranged in advance, for surveys.
Who you would be dealing with
Nikhil Kamdar — an IT security specialist with a passion for property, working in partnership with LandCapital to unlock value in your property that the open market would not pay you for.
My background is in computer networking, cyber and biometric security, and I have worked on major public and private sector projects. I have also delivered several property renovations of my own. What I do now is bring that same eye to land: finding the value sitting in a property, and passing a share of it back to the owner, who would otherwise never have been offered it at all.
Merestones Land & Planning is backed by LandCapital, our partners in the business. Their funding is what lets us carry the cost of an application through planning rather than asking you to.
The application itself is run by LandCapital — a chartered planning consultant, an architect and surveyors, appointed and paid for by them, with the numbers reviewed by their investment team before money is committed. What I do is find the site, appraise it and tell you honestly what I think it is worth, and stay with it from first conversation to completion.
An option agreement is a long relationship. You will not be handed to an account manager or a call centre. You deal with me from the first appraisal to completion.
Tell me about your site
A first appraisal costs nothing and commits you to nothing. The more you can tell me, the more useful the answer will be.
Thank you — your enquiry has been sent
I read every one myself, and I will come back to you personally. Usually within one working day.