Trailblazers in housing in Scotland.

With unparalleled knowledge and expertise, Burness Paull's housebuilding team are well-placed to support the delivery of housing in Scotland, having nationwide scale and depth of resources across all aspects of this sector.

Our real estate lawyers, supported by experts in planning, construction, funding, tax and more, provide a wide range of services to housebuilders, social housing providers, landowners and funders on housebuilding projects, from initial conception to on-site delivery bringing housing developments to fruition.

Burness Paull think ahead to consider the issues that will arise in the future so that they can be considered and controlled now.

Real Estate: £10 million and above client UK, Chambers & Partners, 2023

Key Contacts

View all housebuilding lawyers View all housebuilding lawyers

Our Housebuilding Expertise

We have the largest and most respected team of housebuilding lawyers in Scotland.

We are focused on all elements of providing new build housing across sectors and tenures to ensure the delivery of new homes including:

  • Mainstream Housebuilding
  • Social and Affordable Housing
  • Purpose Built Student Accommodation or PBSA
  • Build to Rent (BTR)
  • Retirement & Later Life Living


Find out more about our Living sector expertise here.

Working hand-in-hand with our planning, construction and finance teams, we advise clients from project inception to site assembly, site promotion, on infrastructure, funding, joint ventures and development set up, through to land and home sales.

New structures and solutions are constantly required to overcome difficulties and to facilitate development. We are at the forefront of emerging contractual structures and funding arrangements such as the funding of infrastructure. This can include bespoke joint venture arrangements, consortium agreements, infrastructure agreements, overage and clawback agreements and other cost and profit-sharing arrangements necessary to provide funding, share risk and unlock development.

Proud members of Homes for Scotland

We work closely with the key industry body Homes for Scotland with representation on various committees and we are the headline sponsor of its annual awards ceremony - seen as 'the' housebuilding industry event in Scotland.


Mainstream Housebuilding

We act for major housebuilders across Scotland in addition to many smaller and niche developers including new entrants and established players. We also act for a wide range of landowners and are currently advising on some of the largest new settlements planned in Scotland.

Our clients include:

  • Avant
  • Barratt
  • CALA
  • Taylor Wimpey
  • Cruden
  • Scotia
  • Miller
  • Springfield
  • Dandara
  • CHAP
  • Malcolm Allan
  • Persimmon

The firm's dedicated plot sales team delivers more than 2,000 home sales per year, selling a range of house types across the country from volume housing to executive homes at the very top end of the market.

Plot Sales

Our specialist plot sales team is one of the largest in Scotland.

Selling a range of house types across the country from volume housing to executive homes at the very top end of the market, they run an exemplary home sales service.

Client success and satisfaction are at the heart of what we do. We are not just a legal partner - we are trusted advisors.

The Living Sector: Social and Affordable Housing, PBSA, BTR and Retirement & Later Life Living

Find out about our living sector expertise here.

Very strong team in the housebuilding sector.

Legal 500, 2025

Related Services

Building Safety Group

Building safety starts with a strong foundation of legal expertise. We are here to help.

Related News, Insights & Events

Performance Security 3 Part 3

Performance security part three: Retentions

The most widely utilised form of performance security, being retentions and some recent measures introduced in the UK to encourage transparency in retention practices in the construction industry.

Read more
Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill Introduced

Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill introduced

Introduced on 5 June 2025, the Building Safety Levy (Scotland) Bill proposes a new tax which, if passed, will be known as the Scottish Building Safety Levy ("the Levy"). 

Read more
Performance Security Part 2

Performance security part two: Parent company guarantees

We are considering recent trends and what these mean in practice. Part 1 considered performance bonds; here we’ll focus on parent company guarantees (PCGs).

Read more

Want to hear more from us?

Subscribe here Subscribe here