Why viability is the biggest barrier to development in 2026 and what it means for talent
The financial case for new developments in the UK has deteriorated significantly, with build cost inflation, softened sales values, increased Section 106 obligations. Taken together, they have created a development environment in which viability has become the primary barrier to delivery. For developers, the response has been to reappraise, reposition, or exit.
Jake McMonagle
By Jake McMonagle, Principal Recruitment Consultant, Investment & Development.
What does the development sector require from talent to stimulate the market?
“Development Managers with advanced financial modelling capability are among the most sought-after hires in the current market.”
As a specialist recruiter with nearly a decade's experience placing senior development and investment talent at deverellsmith, a consistent theme has emerged over the past year. Developers aren’t struggling with broken deals, they’re struggling with a wide array of issues within the market that are contributing to the struggling viability of many schemes across the UK.
The viability crisis reshaping UK Real Estate Development in 2026
The financial case for new developments in the UK has deteriorated significantly, with over 100,000 consented homes stalled across England in schemes that have planning permission, but where the numbers no longer stack up.
Build cost inflation, softened sales values, increased Section 106 obligations, the list goes on and on and all of which have added costs. Taken together, they have created a development environment in which viability has become the primary barrier to delivery, over those more obvious such as planning and politics.
For developers, the response has been to reappraise, reposition, or exit. For those of us working in recruitment, the more pressing question is what this shift demands of the people making those calls.
Why scheme viability is now a talent problem
What deverellsmith is observing across its investment and development network is a clear and consistent shift in hiring priorities.
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Development Managers with advanced financial modelling capability are among the most sought-after hires in the current market. The requirement has moved beyond the ability to interpret an existing appraisal. Hiring managers are looking for professionals who can construct a residual land value model from first principles, stress-test a scheme across multiple cost and revenue scenarios, and present a credible viability case to funders, landowners, or planning authorities. This capability, previously considered a specialism, has become a baseline expectation at Development Manager level and above.
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Asset Managers with experience in repositioning strategies are also in increasing demand. Where a scheme was originally conceived for one use, residential for sale, for example, but market conditions have shifted the viability calculus, clients need professionals who can assess alternative uses, manage the transition, and preserve or recover value in the process. Experience across the build-to-rent, PBSA, and mixed-use sectors is particularly valued, given the frequency with which assets are being reconsidered for operational models.
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Senior commercial leaders capable of rapid strategic reassessment represent a third area of notable demand. These are typically Director or Head of level professionals who can take a portfolio-wide view, identify which schemes merit continued investment, which require repositioning, and which should be released. The ability to communicate those decisions clearly to boards, investors, and external stakeholders is an increasingly critical part of the role.
The emergence of cross-disciplinary talent in Real Estate
Underpinning all three of these hiring trends is a structural shift in what development organisations need. For the past decade, development teams were structured around clearly defined specialisms. Planners, project managers, commercial professionals, and asset managers each operated within relatively distinct functions. That model suited a market in which schemes progressed predictably, and the development process was broadly linear.
The current market is neither predictable nor linear. The most complex challenges do not sit neatly within a single function. They require professionals who can move fluidly across development, investment, and operations; who understand both the financial and physical constraints of a scheme; and who can engage credibly with a range of counterparties, from debt providers to local planning authorities.
This has generated demand for what might be described as the cross-disciplinary strategist: a senior professional whose value lies not in depth of specialism alone, but in the ability to work across disciplines and lead under conditions of commercial uncertainty.
Our own salary data, published in the deverellsmith Salary Guide & Trends Report 2025, reflects the premium now attached to this profile, with cross-functional senior hires commanding notably higher remuneration than their more narrowly defined counterparts.
Implications for hiring organisations and candidates
For development and investment businesses actively building their teams, the brief has changed. Identifying someone with a strong track record in development delivery is no longer sufficient. The relevant question is whether a candidate has navigated genuine commercial complexity, whether they have been required to unpick a scheme that was not working and find a credible path forward. That experience is becoming the primary differentiator at senior level, and it commands a corresponding premium in the current market.
For candidates, the present environment represents a meaningful opportunity for those whose careers have taken them across functional boundaries. Professionals who have moved between development and investment, or between delivery and asset management, are particularly well-positioned. The breadth that may previously have appeared to lack focus is precisely the profile that clients are now seeking.
deverellsmith's Role in This Shift
We sit right in the middle of this transformation. Every week, we're speaking to clients who are restructuring their teams to meet the demands of a more complex, less predictable market, and to candidates whose careers have equipped them, often without realising it, with exactly the cross-disciplinary skills those clients need.
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