Award-winning UK consultancy Planning By Design has launched an AI-powered development marketplace designed to help unlock thousands of stalled housing opportunities across England and Wales.
The new platform combines structured planning intelligence, AI-driven search, and development viability insights to connect landowners holding unused planning permissions with developers and investors actively seeking build-ready opportunities.
The launch comes at a critical moment for the UK housing sector. More than one in three homes granted planning permission in England and Wales since 2015 have never been built. At the same time, the government is running significantly behind the pace required to meet its 1.5 million new homes target.
Planning By Design believes part of the problem lies in how fragmented and inefficient development site discovery remains and has built its new marketplace specifically to address that gap.
Unlike conventional property portals such as Rightmove or Zoopla, the Planning By Design Marketplace is built around planning intelligence rather than traditional property listings. Every opportunity is categorised by planning stage, from pre-application through to full consent, giving developers and investors a clearer understanding of project viability and risk before engaging further.
Central to the platform is Aisa, Planning By Design’s AI-powered planning intelligence assistant. Using natural language search, users can describe development criteria conversationally rather than manually filtering fragmented datasets. The system interprets planning stages, property types, location parameters, and investment preferences to surface relevant opportunities faster than traditional sourcing methods.
The platform also layers structured planning intelligence with indicative Gross Development Value (GDV) estimates, planning-stage categorisation, and investment insights designed to help developers, investors, and fund managers reduce time spent on unsuitable sites and lower early-stage due diligence costs.
The timing is significant. Planning permission was granted for just 209,781 new homes in England in the year to September 2025, the lowest 12-month total since 2013 and 38% below the peak seen in 2022. Yet a substantial proportion of approved sites remain unacted on as landowners who do not wish to build struggle to connect with developers actively searching for viable opportunities.
Grant Singlehurst-Ward, Founder and Managing Director of Planning By Design, said:
“Planning data in the UK is still fragmented, inconsistent and difficult to interrogate at scale. We saw an opportunity to apply AI and structured planning intelligence to a market that still relies heavily on manual research, disconnected portals and slow due diligence processes.
“Our goal is to make development opportunities more discoverable, assessable and investable while helping reduce the number of viable sites that sit dormant after planning approval.”
The issue has become increasingly significant for investors and developers alike. Developers routinely spend substantial time and money compiling planning information on sites that ultimately prove unsuitable, while institutional investors face growing due diligence costs before capital can be deployed confidently.
Faraz Rahis, Portfolio Director – Fund Monitoring & Asset Management (UK Wide) at Empire Capital Ltd, commented:
“The single greatest barrier to deploying capital efficiently in UK real estate is the absence of structured, reliable planning data at the point of investment decision making. Fund managers and institutional investors are frequently forced to commit significant due diligence spend on sites where planning viability remains opaque, leading to wasted capital, delayed deployment, and missed opportunities.
“Any platform that consolidates planning intelligence into a transparent, investable framework will be a game-changer not just for developers, but for the funds and capital allocators behind them who are actively seeking shovel-ready, de-risked opportunities at scale.”
For landowners and sellers, the marketplace provides access to a targeted audience of active developers and investors without requiring them to take on construction risk themselves. For developers, investors, and funds, AI-powered search and structured planning intelligence help reduce friction in sourcing and evaluating opportunities.
Planning By Design is currently inviting a limited number of early listings ahead of the platform’s full launch. The first ten sellers will receive verified listing status and three months of featured placement at no charge.
Singlehurst-Ward added:
“The housing pipeline is at a 15-year low. Permissions are scarce, and too many of the ones that do exist are not being acted on. We believe better planning intelligence, better data structuring, and AI-assisted discovery tools can help remove some of the friction that prevents viable development opportunities from moving forward.”
About Planning By Design
Planning By Design is an award-winning UK planning and architectural consultancy. The firm has been recognised as IE100 Architectural & Planning Consultancy of the Year (2025) and holds four industry awards for innovation and excellence in architecture and town planning.
