Development land in Devon: 657 brownfield sites
The 10 planning authorities in Devon have published 657 sites on their brownfield land registers — land the councils themselves assessed as suitable for housing. Together: about 808 hectares and an estimated 22,880 dwellings of capacity.
Rank these sites with constraints netted off →
Which councils hold the land
Every authority publishes its register separately, so these totals exist nowhere else. Click a council for its full register.
| Authority | Sites | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plymouth | 166 | 221 | 5,942 |
| North Devon | 104 | 84 | 2,576 |
| Torbay | 99 | 52 | 2,471 |
| Torridge | 75 | 45 | 2,263 |
| Teignbridge | 70 | 98 | 1,640 |
| Exeter | 66 | 239 | 7,988 |
| East Devon | 39 | 30 | — |
| Mid Devon | 21 | 12 | — |
| South Hams | 13 | 18 | — |
| West Devon | 4 | 8 | — |
The eight Devon districts plus the Plymouth and Torbay unitaries.
Largest sites in Devon
| Site | Authority | Hectares | Max dwellings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marsh Barton, Exeter | Exeter | 89.4 | 1880 |
| Saltram Meadow, Plymstock | Plymouth | 50.6 | — |
| Sandy Gate, Exeter | Exeter | 39.8 | 250 |
| Water Lane, Exeter | Exeter | 36.2 | 2202 |
| Former China Clay dryer complex, Coypool | Plymouth | 30.5 | 440 |
| land at Ilford Park, Stover, Newton Abbot TQ12 6PW | Teignbridge | 26.4 | 23 |
| Derriford commerical centre | Plymouth | 18.7 | 731 |
| Fremington Training Camp, Hill Top Fremington BARNSTAPLE EX31 3BJ | North Devon | 15.5 | 277 |
| Glacis Park, Derriford | Plymouth | 14.9 | 702 |
| St Bridget Nurseries, Old Rydon Lane, Exeter, EX2 7JY | Exeter | 13.3 | 350 |
| Former Yelland Quay Power Station (FRE02), Lower Yelland, , , BARNSTAPLE, EX31 3 | North Devon | 11.9 | 250 |
| Langdon Hospital, Dawlish EX7 0NS | Teignbridge | 11.1 | 34 |
Source: the councils’ own brownfield land registers, published via planning.data.gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0. 37 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. 215 of the 657 sites (33%) state no dwelling capacity, so the capacity figure covers the 442 that do — the real total is higher.
Before you get attached to one
A register entry is not planning permission and not an offer to sell. It records that the council thinks housing could work there. Whether the owner agrees is a separate conversation, and whether a scheme gets approved is a third.
- Net off the constraints first. Green belt, Flood Zone 3 and listed buildings kill more register sites than anything else.
- The dwelling figure is the council’s opinion. 22,880 across Devon is a planning-policy estimate, not a set of designs.
- Price it off recorded sales. HM Land Registry Price Paid tells you what actually sold; work the residual land value from there.
- England has no zoning. The Local Plan and the Use Classes Order decide what is achievable, application by application.
How to read a register entry properly → · Five ways to find UK development land →
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 councils’ own records or your own professional advisers.