Development Finance
Stafford

Stafford: housing targets and supply

Stafford Borough Council is the planning authority. The Plan for Stafford Borough was adopted on 19 June 2014 for 2011 to 2031, with an average requirement of 500 homes a year, and its strategic policies became more than five years old in June 2019. A new Stafford Local Plan for 2020 to 2040 is being prepared.

The council's five-year housing land supply statement at 31 March 2026 uses local housing need of 760 homes a year, plus a 20% buffer, giving 912 a year for 2026 to 2031, and reports a supply of 1.95 years. The same statement records a Housing Delivery Test result of 139%, published in January 2026, and completions of 719 homes in 2025/26, 612 in 2024/25 and 423 in 2023/24.

Sales values for a Stafford appraisal

The index is only a starting point for GDV, but it frames the numbers. Stafford's averages for July 2026: £111,000 for a flat, £195,000 terraced, £250,000 semi-detached, £395,000 detached; semi-detached prices rose 4.0% while flats were roughly unchanged.

A block of eight flats at the flat average works out at roughly £888,000 of GDV, and four detached houses at roughly £1.58 million. A valuer will want new-build comparables, which often differ from these second-hand figures, before the lender fixes the facility.

If the plan is to hold and let, or to sell to an investor, rents set the value instead. Stafford rents averaged £901 a month in August 2026: £631 for one bedroom, £791 for two and £978 for three. Eight two-bedroom flats at that rent would gross about £75,936 a year before costs and voids.

Test your own figures with the residual land value calculator and the LTGDV and ROCE calculator.

England: tax, funding and building rules

A site bought in Stafford pays Stamp Duty Land Tax, and the appraisal also needs any Community Infrastructure Levy and section 106 costs that Stafford Borough Council sets for the scheme. For schemes of five or more homes, Homes England, the government housing agency, is one of the lenders on our panel; see our Homes England review.

Development lenders for Stafford schemes

For Stafford, our panel has 49 lenders that offer development finance. Each is named below, with a link to our review where we have one. Before approaching a lender we confirm it will lend on that address and that type of property.

Most release build costs in stages after a monitoring surveyor's visit, with interest rolled up and repaid from sales or a refinance; a development exit loan can repay the build lender if units take longer to sell.

Development finance in Stafford: questions