Benjamin Smith

Benjamin joined Roythornes in 2020, bringing with him a wealth of experience in development, leasing and investment projects. 

His comprehensive list of clients includes national and niche housebuilders, registered providers and higher education institutions and also companies associated with housing, retail and care homes. He advises businesses which deal in minerals, building materials, light industry and manufacturing as well as individuals, landowners, land promoters, owner-managed businesses and registered charities.

Benjamin’s vast knowledge is wide-ranging and he is particularly skilled in preparing development agreements, leases and licences, as well as joint venture agreements. When advising development clients, he has expert knowledge of options, overage and promotion agreements, and contracts for planning and utilities.  He is also fully conversant with conditional sale, golden-brick and lock-out agreements, as he is with back-to-back agreements.

Known by his clients for “turning deals around so quickly”, Benjamin has recently been involved in:

• All real estate aspects of a large-scale re-finance for a major housebuilder, involving more than 100 residential development sites
• A joint venture project to deliver around 5,400 new homes over a 10-year programme, comprising a major housebuilder, Homes England and a senior lender
• Various joint ventures involving major housebuilders, landowners and/or registered provider partners
• Acquisition of over 700 units of a complex, mixed-use site with a GDV of £200m
• Advising a landowner on 160 acres of land to be promoted for planning for mixed-use development
• Acting for a registered provider on the acquisition, from numerous vendors, of mixed-tenure, affordable housing across 11 sites, which involved land acquisitions subject to planning and off-the-shelf section 106 units
• Advising a manufacturing company on the conditional acquisition of land from a Government agency for a £10m new facility with a linked building contract and various land and construction warranties
• The acquisition of a Grade I listed building, together with a number of other sites, on behalf of a higher education institution to facilitate an extension to its campus