What to decide before you launch a small development in Ascot and Bracknell

20 Oct 2026

by Gemma Cusworth

In this blog 

• What will new homes on your development sell for? 

• Can you still change the unit mix after planning permission? 

• What specification do new build buyers pay more for? 

• When is the best time to launch a new homes development? 

• How do you stop new homes reservations falling through?  

• When should you appoint a new homes sales agent? 

Most small developers appoint a sales agent once the homes are finished. By then the agent can only sell what has already been decided, and if a plot type is priced or specified wrong, a price reduction is the only fix left. 

On a scheme of five to fifty homes in Ascot or Bracknell, the decisions worth the most are made between getting consent and breaking ground: what the homes will sell for, the mix of house types, the specification, and when you launch. Here is what to settle while each of those is still open, and roughly in what order. 

What will new homes on your development sell for? 

Everything depends on this number, including whether you still make money at the price you paid for the land. 

Your buyers will be local. They are not comparing your homes with other new developments, because on a site of five to fifty homes there usually are not any nearby. They are comparing them with the older houses for sale on the surrounding streets that week. What those houses sell for is what sets your prices, not what another developer is asking. 

So, you want evidence rather than opinion. Named roads. What houses sold for, not what they were listed at. How long each one took to sell. And someone who will tell you what a sale from March is worth today, because prices move and a six-month-old figure needs adjusting. 

You also want to know how many buyers are already registered and looking at your price in your area. A price eight buyers can afford puts you in a much better position than one only two can. 

We have sold houses in these streets for decades. In parts of Ascot and Bracknell we have sold the same house twice, sometimes the family home of a client whose parents we acted for. That is where our pricing evidence comes from. 

Can you still change the unit mix after planning permission? 

Usually there is more room than developers assume, though how much depends on your consent, so it is worth asking your planning consultant early rather than late. 

It matters because pricing on a small scheme is usually set as an average and then divided across the plots, and the risk hides in that division. One plot type carrying an over-optimistic price will sit unsold, and buyers draw conclusions about the rest of the site from it. Two unsold plots on a nine-unit scheme reads as a scheme that is not selling. 

While you are pre-build you can adjust a plot type, change what goes into the hardest unit, or price it differently from the start. Once it is built, a price reduction is usually the only option left. 

What specification do new build buyers pay more for? 

It varies street by street, so a national answer will not help you. 

So, ask a narrower question. Not whether underfloor heating is a good idea, but whether buyers on your road have paid more for a house that has it. You can see the answer in what nearby homes sold for with it and without it. 

Once you sign off the specification, you are stuck with it, so ask in advance. 

When is the best time to launch a new homes development? 

Two things decide that this autumn. 

The first is who is buying. Family houses on the edge of Warfield or Winkfield sell to families, and families move around the school year. Flats near Ascot or Bracknell station sell to first-time buyers, downsizers and people who commute, and they are far less tied to it. The two groups are not looking at the same time of year, so two sites a few miles apart should not launch in the same month. 

The second is what else is happening that month, and this autumn two dates are worth knowing about. The Budget is on Wednesday 28 October. Property tax changes have been talked about, but nothing has been published, so it would not be wise to plan around them. 

Eight days later, on Thursday 5 November, the Bank of England announces its next decision on the base rate. It has been 3.75% since December, and the Bank held it again on 17 September, with three of the nine people who set it voting to raise it rather than cut. Waiting for cheaper borrowing is not a plan this autumn, and if anything, the risk runs the other way. 

Neither date is a reason to hold back. The right launch date depends on who your buyers are, where your build programme is and what else is for sale nearby, and that is different for every site. Our property experts will talk through the timing with you and help you pick a launch date that suits your scheme. 

When the Home Builders Federation surveyed small and medium housebuilders over July, more than a third had already delayed, redesigned or cancelled a scheme, and a net balance expected to build less over the following quarter. Fewer competing sites is genuinely useful to you. The same survey found low buyer confidence was the constraint most of them named, which is exactly why the pricing and the first six weeks matter as much as they do. 

How do you stop new homes reservations falling through? 

Mostly by being selective about who you let reserve in the first place. 

Check buyers before they view rather than after they offer. That means fewer viewings than you might expect, on purpose. On a small site, a reservation from someone who cannot actually proceed costs you more than no reservation at all. 

Then there are chains. Reserve nine plots, and you have nine buyers, most of them with a house to sell first. If two of those sales collapse, a fifth of your sales has gone, and the plots go back on the market with a history. Our in-house team chases chains rather than waiting for solicitors to report a problem, and it is the same team we use on every sale. 

This matters most in your first six weeks. A slow start is expensive to fix, because buyers notice a site that has not moved and start waiting for the price to drop instead of making an offer. 

When should you appoint a new homes sales agent? 

Before you sign off the house types, if you can. 

An agent who arrives once the houses are built can only sell what is already there. One who is in the conversation while the house types and the specification are still open can tell you which of them will be hardest to sell, and that changes what the whole site earns. Marketing comes last, and it works better when the prices, the house types and the launch date are already right. 

Whoever you talk to, listen for detail. If you ask what a four-bedroom house on your road is worth, the answer should name the last three that sold and what each one went for. 

And you do not need to have decided anything to have that conversation. 

At Duncan Yeardley, a Land and New Homes consultation is a working session on your site. We look at what similar homes nearby are selling for, who is likely to buy each house type, where your pricing risk sits and what order to do things in. You leave with a view you can act on, whether or not you appoint us, and nothing has to be committed to have the conversation. 

Book a Land and New Homes consultation with us today.