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Portsmouth

Hampshire · Q3 2026

Portsmouth Q3 2026: approvals and refusals level at 19 each as 117 homes await decision

Portsmouth approved half of its decided planning applications in Q3 2026, mostly for small conversions, while the queue of undecided schemes includes a 43-home Southsea scheme.

Median sale price: £250,500
Median price trend: £251k
Pending dev applications: 56
Pipeline value (GDV): £28.0m

Portsmouth approved 19 planning applications and refused 19 in Q3 2026. That gives an approval rate of 50%, down from 76.5% in Q3 2025. Approvals covered 22 homes. Meanwhile 56 applications proposing 117 homes are still waiting for a decision, and the median sold price was flat at £250,500.

What's driving the Portsmouth market

Portsmouth's local planning authority approved 19 applications and refused 19 in Q3 2026, with 3 withdrawn. That is an approval rate of 50%. In Q2 2026 the rate was 55% (16 approved, 13 refused, 4 withdrawn). In Q3 2025 it was 76.5%, when 26 applications were approved and only 8 refused. Over the 12 months to 30 September 2026 the authority approved 98 applications and refused 44, an approval rate of 69%. The latest quarter is therefore well below the annual rate. These figures cover the whole local planning authority, not one neighbourhood. They come from local planning authority records compiled by Landstack, retrieved 3 October 2026. Decisions made in the final days of Q3 2026 may not all be included yet. In all three quarters shown, every decision has a recorded outcome. Approved schemes this quarter totalled 22 homes, so the decisions were mostly about small schemes rather than volume housing. Developers bringing small conversions and upward extensions to the city should expect to be scrutinised more closely than they would have been a year ago.

Market data at a glance

The Portsmouth numbers, visualised

Median sale price by property type

2,921 sales clearing across the type-mix

£165k

£165,000

£260k

£259,500

£330k

£330,000

£505k

£505,000

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid, rolling 12 months.

New build mix

2,920

New build · 0.0%Existing stock

Planning approval rate

69%approved

of 142 decided applications

Portsmouth quarterly median price & volume

Median sale priceTransactions

Source: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data. Median computed across all registered transactions per period.

How Portsmouth compares

Market

Median

YoY

12m txns

Portsmouth

£250,500

+0.2%

2,921

South East average

£400,000

+1.1%

—

UK average

£285,000

+1.4%

—

Development pipeline

Live planning activity in Portsmouth

At the time of retrieval, 56 applications proposing 117 homes were awaiting a decision across the authority. The gross development value of the pipeline has been estimated from local sold-price medians by property type. The largest pending scheme by estimated value is 26/00464/FUL from Southsea Village Ltd at PO5 2FN. It proposes 43 homes, made up of 10 new buildings with 34 dwellings, the conversion of St Catherines to a single dwelling, and 8 dwellings in the converted Maurice Wing above a children's day nursery. Its estimated GDV is £10.8m. Next is 26/00096/ful from denzil properties (h&s) ltd, a part 3, part 5-storey building of 24 units that would replace an existing building. A conversion of a school into 16 homes is pending under 26/00313/FUL at PO1 2EN. Smaller schemes follow. Walker Car Holdings Ltd proposes 6 houses at PO2 0SX under 26/00465/FUL. Application 26/00188/FUL would add two storeys to create 6 flats at PO5 3SJ. Most of the pipeline's homes sit in the three largest schemes, so their outcomes will decide how much of the pipeline turns into permissions.

Top schemes by GDV in the pipeline

Notable pending applications

Pending26/00464/FUL

units

Construction of 10 buildings accommodating 34 dwellings, conversion of St Catherines to a single dwelling, conversion and alteration to Maurice Wing to accommodate 8 dwellings with Children's Day Nursery at Ground Floor and associated car parking and landscaping (Total 43 dwellings) Alternative proposals to Planning Permission 23/01089/FUL.

Pending26/00096/ful

units

construction of part 3/ part 5-storey building to form 24no. residential units, with associated parking, communal amenity space and landscaping, following demolition of existing building

Pending26/00313/FUL

units

Conversion of school (Class F1) to form 16no. residential dwellings (Class C3), including associated landscaping, refuse and cycle storage and demolition of existing ancillary rifle range/swimming pool buildings

Pending26/00465/FUL

units

Proposed development of 4 no. 4 bed dwellings and 2 no. 3 bed dwellings with associated parking, refuse and recycling provisions.

Pending26/00188/FUL

units

Construction of two additional storeys to provide 6no. self-contained residential dwellings (Class C3) with cycle storage

Pending25/01484/ful

units

reconfiguration of rear central wing at upper ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor and 4th floor levels to form 5no. additional apartments including installation of dropped kerb to facilitate vehicular access with 2 off road parking spaces

Source: Portsmouth planning records via Landstack. GDV estimates use local sales medians by property type.

Sales activity

Recent Portsmouth sold prices

HM Land Registry Price Paid Data puts Portsmouth's median sold price at £250,500 over the 12 months to 30 June 2026, based on 2,921 transactions. Year-on-year change was 0.2%. Prices have been very stable: quarterly medians stayed between £250,000 and £251,500 from 2025-Q1 to 2026-Q2, and 2026-Q2 recorded £251,500. The quarterly transaction counts for 2026-Q1 and 2026-Q2 are lower, at 533 and 538. However, Land Registry registers sales weeks or months after completion, so the most recent quarter is still filling and should not be read as a fall in activity. Medians by property type are £505,000 for detached houses, £330,000 for semi-detached, £259,500 for terraced and £165,000 for flats. Only 1 new-build sale has been registered so far in the window. That leaves little local new-build evidence for valuers, so second-hand comparables will carry most of the weight. The gap between terraced and flat medians is relevant to the many approved schemes that turn houses or commercial space into flats.

Latest registered sales

Land Registry · 3 October 2026

Date	Address	Type	Tenure	Price
28 August 2026	86, MADEIRA ROAD	T	F	£318,000
27 August 2026	2, KIRTLEY CLOSE	T	F	£260,000
26 August 2026	FLAT 8, SHERATON GATE, 103, CLARENDON ROAD	F	L	£125,000
25 August 2026	62, LEALAND ROAD	S	F	£390,078
25 August 2026	13, BEACH ROAD	T	F	£490,000
25 August 2026	91, NEWCOME ROAD	T	F	£215,000
24 August 2026	11, SOUTH ROAD	T	F	£233,000
24 August 2026	3, DOWN END ROAD	D	F	£585,000

Portsmouth refused as many applications as it approved in Q3 2026, with 19 of each, while 117 homes wait for a decision.

For developers

What this means for Portsmouth schemes

The quarter's approvals were small, mostly conversions of buildings no longer used for their original purpose. NM Projects won consent under 26/00108/FUL at PO5 4BS to keep a pub at ground floor, create 2 flats above it and form 2 houses alongside. Sjm Pubs secured 25/00963/FUL at PO5 3DD, turning a pub into 2 houses and building 2 more on the garden. A spiritualist church at PO1 1PR will become 2 flats. Refusals show the risk. Collective Property Holdings was refused 25/01185/FUL, a 4-flat ballroom conversion at PO1 2NW. A Class MA prior approval for 3 dwellings at PO5 2PS was also turned down. Schemes like these suit finance that is flexible about timing. Construction Capital arranges senior development finance from 6.5% p.a., up to 65-70% LTGDV. Mezzanine can stretch total borrowing to 85-90% of costs. Bridging can complete in 5-10 days, which helps when buying a site before planning is secured. Our panel covers 100+ lenders, family offices and equity partners. With only 1 new-build sale registered so far, lenders will want valuations based on local second-hand evidence for each property type.

Portsmouth development finance

Term sheets for ground-up schemes — 65-70% LTGDV typical for Portsmouth.

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Portsmouth bridging finance

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Portsmouth market hub

Full Portsmouth location profile — services, sold data, and contacts.

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For sold prices by property type and the full planning pipeline, see the Portsmouth property market report.

Where we fund in Portsmouth

Outlook

The next 12 months in Portsmouth

The question for Q4 2026 is whether Portsmouth's approval rate moves back towards the 69% recorded over the 12 months to 30 September 2026, or stays nearer the 50% of Q3 2026. Some late-quarter decisions may still be added to the records, so the Q3 figures could change slightly. The pipeline of 56 applications and 117 homes depends heavily on a few schemes. The 43-home Southsea Village Ltd application, the 24-unit denzil properties (h&s) ltd scheme and the 16-home school conversion are the decisions to watch. On sales, a median of £250,500 and year-on-year change of 0.2% point to a steady market rather than a rising one. Appraisals should therefore rely on current comparables, not price growth. Developers looking at pub, church, commercial or rooftop conversions should expect close scrutiny of design and amenity, given the refusals this quarter. Bringing in a lender early, and keeping bridging options open where timing matters, will help keep projects moving while planning outcomes remain uncertain.

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Sources: HM Land Registry Price Paid Data (sold prices); Portsmouth planning records via Landstack (planning applications); ONS House Price Index (regional benchmarks). Report generated 4 October 2026 by Construction Capital's market intelligence team.

Methodology: Pending GDV is estimated by multiplying declared unit counts by local sales medians for the corresponding property type. Approval rate is the share of decided applications (last 12 months) granted permission. Sold-price changes are year-on-year comparisons of the median sale price. Pipeline activity refers to residential development applications only — household extensions, conditions variations, and other non-development applications are excluded. Construction Capital is a trading name of Lenzie Consulting Ltd. (08174104).