Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

Estate definition

What does Estate mean? In practice, “estate” describes either: (1) the nature and duration of a person’s proprietary interest in land; or (2) the aggregate property of a person, commonly on death or bankruptcy. England & Wales and Northern Ireland: An estate in land denotes the time-based interest, not the land itself. Statute and case law limit legal estates primarily to freehold (fee simple absolute in possession) and leasehold (term of years absolute), with other interests (for example, life interests and beneficial interests under a trust) arising in equity. This concept underpins conveyancing, security, priorities and land registration. Ireland: Under the Land and Conveyancing Law Reform...

Introductory guide to procurement routes in UK real estate development finance: design and build, traditional, management contracting, and lenders’ considerations on cost certainty and risk

Published by a LexisNexis Banking & Finance expert

Practice notes

Development documentation is a central element of any real estate finance transaction that involves the development of property. For further information, see Practice Note: Real estate development finance—introduction to the development documentation.

The scope and content of the development documentation are dictated by the procurement route selected for the scheme. Here, procurement refers to purchasing services for the development works. This Practice Note sets out the key characteristics of the most common procurement approaches for developing a property:

design and build procurement
traditional procurement
management contracting

Lenders generally favour the design and build route as it provides the greatest degree of cost certainty and is the most widely adopted procurement method in the UK. By contrast, management contracting carries the highest cost exposure, is typically disliked by lenders, and is used less frequently than the other methods within the UK construction market.

Design and build procurement

Under the design and build route, the borrower (also known as the employer or developer) appoints a building contractor to deliver both the design and construction elements of the development...

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Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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