Camden developers are still borrowing, but the loans already on the books are clearing more slowly than they were a year ago. For anyone heading towards practical completion in the borough, that matters more than the headline lending figure: it shapes how much patience a development lender has left, and how busy the refinance market will be when your facility needs replacing.
We looked at Companies House charge filings and HM Land Registry sales for the London Borough of Camden to see where local schemes stood at the end of June 2026. The full dataset, with quarterly charts and comparisons against England and Wales, is in the Camden development exit report. This briefing pulls out what it means for a developer working in the borough.
New development lending is broadly flat
Development lenders registered 49 new charges against Camden sites and developers in the 12 months to June 2026, against 46 in the year before. That is a rise of 6.5%, slower than the 11.7% increase across England and Wales. The charges went to 37 separate borrowing companies, up from 30, so a slightly wider group of developers is drawing new facilities.
The first half of 2026 looked busier, with 19 new charges against 13 in the first half of 2025. Recent filings are provisional and the numbers are small, so we put more weight on the 12 month comparison.
Repayments have slowed sharply
This is the figure that stands out. Lenders filed 17 Camden development charges as satisfied over the year, down from 27 the year before, a fall of 37.0%. Nationally, satisfactions rose by 21.1% over the same period. For every new development charge in Camden there were 0.35 repayments, down from 0.59 a year earlier and below the national ratio of 0.40.
Two cautions apply. A charge is a security document, not a loan balance, so the count tells you how many facilities cleared rather than how much debt was repaid. Satisfactions are also filed late, so the most recent months will rise as paperwork catches up. Even allowing for that, fewer Camden schemes are reaching a clean exit than a year ago.
A live book in line with London's ageing pattern
At 30 June 2026 there were 225 live development charges in Camden. Of those, 61.3% had been registered more than 24 months earlier, close to the national figure of 60.6%. Including everything older than 18 months, the share rises to 73.8%, against 69.1% nationally.
Most development facilities are written for 18 to 24 months. A charge still live after two years usually sits on a scheme that has overrun its build programme, is selling more slowly than planned, or is waiting on a refinance. Combined with the drop in repayments, that points to more Camden developers needing extensions or exit facilities in the coming year.
Exit lending picked up
Development exit and refinance charges against Camden borrowers rose to 33 in the 12 months to June 2026, from 30 the year before, an increase of 10.0% against 3.4% nationally. The first half of 2026 was particularly active, with 18 exit charges against 4 in the first half of 2025. Specialist banks accounted for 24 of the 12 month total and bridging lenders for 9, a shift towards specialist banks compared with the previous year's 17 and 13.
Across all property-secured lending in the borough, 580 charges were matched to lender categories over the year. Specialist lenders made up 83.0% of them, below the national 88.4%. High street lenders took 17.0%, against 11.5% nationally, the tenth highest share of the 73 locations we track. Camden borrowers have better access to mainstream money than most, which can help on long-term refinance once a scheme is let or part sold.
New-build sales: fewer, at a smaller premium
Land Registry records new-build sales slowly, so we read them over the latest settled year, August 2024 to July 2025. Camden recorded 164 new-build sales in that window, down from 244 the year before, a fall of 32.8%. New-build made up 7.1% of all sales, a little below the national share of 8.3%.
Almost all Camden new-build sales are flats. They sold at a median of £821,500, 19.4% above the £688,000 median for existing flats. A year earlier the premium was 29.6%. A narrowing premium alongside lower volumes suggests buyers are pricing new stock more carefully, which feeds straight into valuations at exit.
We do not yet hold council planning data for Camden, so this briefing does not cover approvals or the consented pipeline.
What to take from it
Camden still has active development lending and a stronger high street presence than most of the country, but repayments have fallen while the live book has aged. If you are approaching completion, start the exit conversation early, build comparable evidence from recent flat sales rather than asking prices, and price an exit facility alongside a straight sale. For student-led schemes, our Camden student accommodation development report covers that market separately.
Sources: Companies House charge register and HM Land Registry Price Paid Data, analysed by Construction Capital. Period figures for 2026 are provisional. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.