The Provision of Information (Contractual Controls) (Registered Land) Regulations 2026 (the “Regulations”) will come into force on 6 April 2027. The purpose of the Regulations is to bring about greater transparency in the property sphere and to bolster future development.

What rights are to be captured by the Regulations:

Rule 3 of the Regulations defines what a contractual right is. In broad terms, the documents captured include:

• option agreements;
• conditional contracts;
• pre-emption agreements; and
• rights associated with certain promotion agreements.

What is exempt from the duty to provide contractual control information

Security arrangements

Rights granted solely to secure the repayment of a loan or mortgage, such as those usually contained in legal charges or debentures. These are typically already recorded through existing HM Land Registry processes. Security for overage obligations is also excluded.

Short leases

Rights relating to leasehold estates with a term of less than 15 years remaining at the time the right is granted. The thinking here is that such leases carry limited development value and have little bearing on the wider market.

Non-development arrangements

Rights granted exclusively for purposes other than development, as defined in the Regulations. However, rights may still fall within scope if, in substance, they relate to the future development or disposal of the land for development.

Short-lasting rights

Rights with a total period of control of less than 18 months.

Rights relating to section 106 agreements

Rights relating exclusively to the provision of infrastructure, amenities or services in connection with a grant of planning permission.

National security or defence purposes

A right contained in a contract made for the purposes of national security or defence.

These exemptions should be interpreted narrowly. Where an agreement serves multiple purposes, the information provision requirement may still apply.

Timing and transitional arrangements

The Regulations were made on 8 June 2026 and require any relevant agreements entered into from that date up to 6 April 2027 (the date the Regulations come into force) to be registered before 6 October 2027. In practical terms, the making of the Regulations is the cue to start logging relevant agreements, since they become notifiable from 6 April 2027.

From 6 April 2027, the grant, variation or assignment of a relevant right must be registered within 60 calendar days.  Bear in mind also that the Regulations require registration (again within 60 days) of the expiry or exercise, at any time after 6 April 2027, of a registered contractual control right.

In more welcome news, the Regulations are not broadly retrospective (they will not, as originally mooted, capture agreements entered into since 2021). Even so, a word of caution: assigning or varying a contractual control agreement after 6 April 2027 will bring with it a duty to register, even if the agreement itself pre-dated the coming into force of the Regulations and so did not require registration when it was granted. As regards variations, this is the case only if the variation affects any of the information that would have been provided had the agreement been registrable.

What information is required on registration

The information that must be provided to HM Land Registry is as follows:

• the full names of the grantor and grantee;
• where the grantor or grantee is a body corporate, partnership or other legal person, an identifier issued by a UK authority (such as a company number) or, if the grantor is an individual, their date and place of birth;
• the type of the contractual control right granted;
• details of the date, parties, and name of the contract which grants the contractual control right;
• for options, conditional contracts or land promotion agreements, the date from which the contractual control right can be exercised, or details of any conditions precedent;
• how long the period of control lasts, and details of any provisions to extend or terminate it;
• the title number(s) of the estate in land over which the right has been granted, and its address and postcode; and
• details of whether the land subject to the right includes land (including subsoil or airspace) held apart from the surface.

Note that if a contract contains more than one sort of contractual control right, then a separate submission must be made in respect of each such right.

The information will be processed and retained by HM Land Registry in a separate database. HM Land Registry will start publishing some of this information as soon as possible after 6 April 2028.

Failure to comply

Non-compliance with the Regulations (including the requirement to register the expiry or exercise of a relevant right), or knowingly or recklessly providing false or misleading information, will be a criminal offence under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023.

What you can do now

Keep a register of the rights likely to be caught and that will require registration — don’t get caught out early on. It is best to be proactive here.

Summary

The contractual controls register marks a significant shift towards transparency in the property development market. From 6 April 2027, a wide range of contractual controls, including options, conditional contracts, pre-emption agreements and certain promotion agreements — must be notified to HM Land Registry within 60 calendar days of their grant, variation or assignment, with limited and narrowly construed exemptions. Although the regime is not broadly retrospective, agreements entered into between 8 June 2026 and 6 April 2027 must be registered before 6 October 2027, and post-commencement variations or assignments of pre-existing agreements can pull them into scope. With non-compliance carrying criminal liability under the Levelling-up and Regeneration Act 2023, parties should begin recording their relevant agreements now so they are ready to register when the regime goes live.