Selling land in Monmouthshire

The plan is at examination, the county is short of homes and Welsh rules apply. What that means for your land.

By Iain Forster, The Land Buyer. Last reviewed 2026-10-05.

In shortMonmouthshire is replacing its local plan. The Replacement Local Development Plan 2018 to 2033 was submitted in November 2025 and is at examination, with hearings from September 2026. The county has told the examiner it is short of homes against its own target. For an owner of land beside a village that is the moment to find out where the land stands.

The local plan
What we look for
Free land review

The local plan

A new plan at examination, a stated shortfall

The Replacement Local Development Plan covers 2018 to 2033 and proposes about 7,600 homes over the period. It was submitted for examination on 7 November 2025 and the hearing sessions began on 8 September 2026 (Monmouthshire County Council RLDP pages, read October 2026). Adoption is expected after the examiner reports; the council's own timetable says late 2026 but that is not yet confirmed. The council's monitoring shows housing completions well behind the annual requirement, a shortfall it has set out in its own evidence.

What that means for an owner. Land that the new plan allocates for homes is worth most of its developed value once the plan is adopted. Land beside a settlement boundary that the plan did not allocate still has a route, but a harder one: a planning application argued on the shortfall and the site's merits. Land in the open countryside, away from any settlement, has no route for market homes under either the old plan or the new one. Our first job is to tell you which of the three your land is.

Wales is not England

Welsh planning runs under Planning Policy Wales, not the English framework. There is no five year land supply test of the English kind, no presumption in favour when a council is short and no statutory biodiversity net gain percentage. The Wye catchment adds a phosphate test to anything that drains to the river. We read the Welsh rules, not the English ones, on every Monmouthshire site.

Check the register yourself

Monmouthshire's planning applications are public at the council's online register. Search by postcode to see every application near your land in the last ten years and what happened to it.

What we are looking for here

Village edges, backland and redundant buildings

Beside a village boundary

Fields and paddocks touching Monmouth, Usk, Raglan, Llanfoist, Caldicot, Magor and the larger villages. One to six acres is the sweet spot for the buyers we hold.

Inside the boundary

Large gardens, orchards, yards and former club or chapel land within a settlement. These need no change to the plan to be built on.

Redundant buildings

Barns and agricultural buildings with a road and services, where conversion or a one for one replacement may be allowed.

Questions landowners ask

Straight answers

Has the Monmouthshire local plan been adopted?

Not as of October 2026. The Replacement Local Development Plan was submitted in November 2025 and hearings began in September 2026. Adoption follows the examiner's report; the council has said late 2026 but that is not confirmed.

My field is outside the village boundary. Is there any point?

Sometimes. The county's housing shortfall strengthens an application beside a settlement where the site has access, no flood issue and a sensible scale. Away from any settlement there is no route for market homes. We will say so.

Does the River Wye phosphate problem stop development?

It adds a test, not a bar. Sites that drain to the Wye or the Usk must show no extra phosphate reaches the river, which usually means a treatment solution designed in from the start. We check the catchment on day one.

Where do you work in Monmouthshire?

The whole county. We are based in Monmouth and know the north and east best.

Free land review

Tell us about your land

Tell us the postcode. We do the rest at our cost and come back to you within ten days.