Bromley Development Finance: 60 Unit Mixed-use Scheme at Former Gas Holder Site Enters the Pipeline

A new mixed-use application has landed on Bromley's planning register, and it is the kind of scheme our development finance desk watches closely. Application 26/02764/FPA covers the former gas holder site on Homesdale Road and was received on 11 August 2026, according to the London Borough of Bromley planning register.

The application seeks hybrid planning permission. That means full permission for one part of the site and outline permission for another, submitted together under a single reference. The full element covers demolition of the existing structures and hardstanding and the construction of a foodstore of up to 2,499 square metres, with the access, car parking, servicing, landscaping, substations and plant that go with it. The outline element covers up to 60 residential dwellings, with all matters reserved for a later application. In plain terms, the retail piece is ready to build once consented, while the housing piece still needs a further application to settle layout, scale, appearance and landscaping before anyone can start on site.

We estimate a gross development value of around £30,000,000 for the completed scheme, based on the unit count and the site's position in the borough. That figure will move once the reserved matters are settled and a build cost plan is priced, but it gives sponsors a starting point for structuring.

This site sits within a wider push of activity across the borough that we track through our Bromley area page, and a scheme of this size on a former industrial plot is a useful marker of where developer appetite in outer London currently sits.

On the funding side, a hybrid application like this one tends to need staged finance rather than a single facility. The foodstore element, once it has full consent, is the kind of commercial asset that specialist commercial lenders will underwrite against a pre-let or an anchor covenant, and it could realistically move to a development loan well ahead of the housing phase. The residential element is still at outline stage, so any facility there will need to sit behind a reserved matters consent before a lender will commit funds, though early-stage bridging specialists sometimes step in to cover site assembly or holding costs in the meantime. Sponsors with mixed-use consents like this one often end up blending a commercial development loan with a separate residential facility rather than trying to force both uses under one lender's criteria, particularly where a challenger bank is more comfortable with the retail covenant than the unbuilt housing.

Our reading is that this is a scheme worth watching rather than acting on immediately. The 60 unit residential element cannot be priced properly for finance until reserved matters are submitted and decided, so sponsors should use this window to get a build cost plan together, line up a quantity surveyor's appraisal, and start conversations with lenders about appetite for the site rather than waiting for full consent to begin the process. For the foodstore, sponsors should have a funding conversation open well before determination, since full permission on that element means finance can move faster than the housing side allows.

We will keep this application on our watch list and update this piece as it progresses through committee.