Daniel Leather

Daniel has a wide experience acting on all aspects of residential development across the various asset classes – more particularly focused on open market development and disposals, build to rent projects, developer-side affordable housing deals and acquiring and disposing of sites to support the development of modular housing schemes.

He advises a range of residential developers (from SME to PLC) on acquiring, financing, developing and disposing of land and developments. Gowling WLG offers the full complement of services to residential developers, from initial site identification and assembly through to due diligence, acquisition, development and onward disposal.

Daniel also deals with longer term strategic land acquisitions and projects (via conditional contracts, option agreements, promotion agreements and hybrid option/promotion agreements) and disposals of affordable housing to housing associations on a variety of deal structures. Daniel also acts for a number of 'facilitator' developers, securing land opportunities for them and terms for onward disposals of undeveloped land which dovetail with the acquisition and give his client 'deal winning' SDLT reliefs.

Joint head of the firm's Living sector group, Daniel brings together legal expertise for residential, student accommodation, senior living, regeneration, mixed use, build to rent and hotels. He splits his time between the firm's Birmingham and London offices, and works with clients across England and Wales.

Clients

Dan's clients include Mulberry Property Developments, Bloor Homes, Miller Homes, Hayfield Homes, Living Space Housing, Persimmon and L&G Modular.

Highlights

Dan has already built a sizeable practice acting for housebuilders, and he has bolstered his profile by advising them on large, complex deals, including:

• The disposal of affordable housing units on the Battersea development for Battersea Power Station.
• The development of Sherford, a new town of circa 5,000 homes on the south coast.
• Helping his national house builder clients by drafting and standardising their affordable housing disposal documentation.
• He is also recognised as an important voice in the house builder sector, and often provides comment on the market for external publications.