Brownfield land in Portsmouth: 234 sites on the register
Part of development land in Hampshire — 1,113 sites across 13 councils.
Portsmouth City Council has published 234 brownfield sites in Portsmouth on its statutory land register — land the council itself has assessed as suitable for housing. Together they cover about 253.1 hectares.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Largest sites on the Portsmouth register
| Site | Hectares | Max dwellings | Planning status |
|---|---|---|---|
| ST JAMES HOSPITAL | 33.13 | — | not yet |
| St James Hospital and Langstone Campus | 33.03 | — | not yet |
| Tipner | 26.16 | — | not yet |
| PORT SOLENT, HMS EXCELLENT | 25.34 | — | not yet |
| Land at Portsmouth Water Works, Farlington | 19.13 | — | not yet |
| Portsmouth City Centre | 18.68 | — | not yet |
| TIPNER FIRING RANGE | 15.46 | — | not yet |
| Port Solent | 12.28 | — | not yet |
Source: Portsmouth City Council brownfield land register, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Figures are the council’s own. 84 further entries repeat the area of a site already listed (councils often record a whole site's area against each phase), so that land is counted once. No site in Portsmouth states a dwelling capacity on the register, so no capacity figure is shown.
What a brownfield register actually is
Every local planning authority in England is required to keep a register of previously-developed land it considers appropriate for residential development. Part 1 lists all such sites; Part 2 sites carry permission in principle.
What it is not: an entry is not planning permission, and it is not an offer to sell. The council assessing a site as suitable says nothing about whether the owner wants to sell it or what a scheme would actually get approved. England has no zoning — the Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable.
The registers are public and free. They are underused mainly because each authority publishes its own separately, in its own format, so comparing more than one area by hand is painful.
Working the Portsmouth register properly
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else. Check before you fall in love with a line on a map.
- Treat the dwelling figure as the council’s opinion. The council has published no dwelling capacity for Portsmouth, so the yield here is yours to establish.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid gives you what actually sold nearby; work the residual land value from there rather than from an asking price.
- Find the owner. Register sites are rarely advertised. Ownership status is listed, and Land Registry title records do the rest.
Questions this page answers
- Brownfield land register Portsmouth
- Development land in Portsmouth
- How much brownfield land is there in Portsmouth?
- Where can I build houses in Portsmouth?
- Portsmouth land availability assessment
GoSiteHunt is an advertising and analysis platform, not a real estate agent or planning consultancy. Everything here is indicative screening from public data — not a valuation, not planning advice, and never a substitute for the council’s own records or your own professional advisers.