Starting a Self Storage Business in Northern Ireland: Planning, Rates and Tax (2026)

As at 17 October 2026, starting a self storage business in Northern Ireland follows its own rules on planning, building control and rates. A planning application for 1,000 m² costs £6,076 for a new non-residential building and £4,298 for a change of use, against £9,226 and £610 in England (our calculation; Northern Ireland from 1 April 2025, England from 1 April 2026). Rates for 2026-27 run from 57.84p to 72.16p in the pound of net annual value (our conversion).

It is general information, not legal advice, and not tax advice. Before you rely on any reading in it, ask a Northern Ireland solicitor about the law, and the council, Land & Property Services or building control about the points only they decide. Rates and fees change; where a source is silent we say so and give the date, as on 17 October 2026, when no Northern Irish planning text we searched named self storage.

Is starting a self storage business in Northern Ireland different from England?

Yes: Northern Ireland has its own planning law, use class, permitted development order, fee scale, rates system and building control, and, on gov.uk’s account, the same Stamp Duty Land Tax as England. The table below sets the two side by side.

Eleven councils decide most applications, and the Department for Infrastructure decides regionally significant and called-in ones. Building control belongs to the district council. The Northern Ireland Executive sets the regional rate, each district council sets its district rate and Land & Property Services values the property.

Fees differ in both directions: the Northern Irish fee for a new non-residential building is lower than England’s at every whole square metre from 1 to 30,000 (our calculation; Northern Ireland from 1 April 2025, England from 1 April 2026). Its fee for a change of use, on the same dates, is £307 for each 75 m² up to £15,350, against England’s flat £610.

The Department of Finance’s news item of 29 January 2026 says the Finance Minister “has stopped the Reval 2026 process” (the revaluation of business rates), and the rates section below gives the status.

Scotland and Wales have their own guides, linked at the end. Our guide to business rates for a storage business covers England’s scheme, and our glossary entry on Class B8 covers its use class.

Who decides a storage planning application, and which use class and policy apply?

Eleven councils decide most planning applications, Class B4 is “Use for storage or as a distribution centre”, and policy comes from the Strategic Planning Policy Statement and the retained Planning Policy Statements.

The Department for Infrastructure (the Department) says responsibility for planning is shared between the 11 councils and itself, and that the councils determine “the vast majority of planning applications”. It decides regionally significant and called-in applications, and section 29 of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011 lets it direct that applications made to a council be referred to it instead.

Section 25 of the Act puts every development in one of two categories, major or local. Item 8 of the Schedule to the Development Management Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, “Business, Industry (Light and General), Storage and Distribution”, makes a development major if it has 5,000 m² or more of gross floor space or a site of 1 hectare or more. Item 9, “All other development”, sets the same two thresholds.

On 17 October 2026 we found no definition of “gross floor space” in the Regulations or their Schedule. In our reading, no threshold for the regionally significant route under section 26(1) appears to be prescribed for “Storage and Distribution”: Column 3 of the Schedule has entries for classes 1 to 5 and none for items 6 to 9.

Section 27 provides that, before applying for a major development, the applicant gives the council a proposal of application notice, and “a period of at least 12 weeks must elapse” before the application is submitted. The council has 21 days to require wider notice or further consultation.

Regulation 5 provides for a public event, a newspaper notice and, for applications made on or after 1 August 2025, a website for the proposal, and regulation 7, on pre-determination hearings, is revoked for applications duly made after that date.

The Planning (Use Classes) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 puts storage in Part B, Class B4, “Use for storage or as a distribution centre”. Article 3(1) provides that, subject to the Order’s other provisions, using a building or land for another purpose in the same class “shall not be taken to involve development of the land”.

On 17 October 2026 legislation.gov.uk held the Planning (Use Classes) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 only in its original form (as made), and a search of titles found no amending order; an order with a different title would not appear.

On 17 October 2026 we found no Northern Irish planning text that names self storage, a storage unit or a container yard: not the Use Classes Order, the Strategic Planning Policy Statement, Planning Policy Statements 4 and 21, the permitted development Order or the Development Management Regulations. Nor, on 17 October 2026, did we find a source that says which class a given self-storage building takes, so the planning authority is the body to ask.

The Strategic Planning Policy Statement, Edition 2, was published on 11 December 2025 and revoked the 2015 edition. Until a council adopts a Plan Strategy for its whole area, planning authorities apply the retained policy, including Planning Policy Statements 4, 15 (Revised) and 21, together with it.

Policy PED 1 of Planning Policy Statement 4 says a Class B4 proposal in a city or town “will be permitted in an area specifically allocated for such purposes in a development plan”, and also in an existing or proposed industrial or employment area where its tests are met. Paragraph 5.11 says proposals for large scale storage and distribution “will, in general, be more tightly controlled in the countryside than proposals for other economic development uses”.

Policy CTY 4 of Planning Policy Statement 21 covers the sympathetic conversion of “a suitable building for a variety of alternative uses”, and excludes buildings of temporary construction, “such as those designed and used for agricultural purposes, including sheds or stores”. Policy CTY 11 says farm diversification proposals “will only be acceptable where they involve the re-use or adaptation of existing farm buildings”.

On 17 October 2026 the Department’s consultation on the classes and thresholds in the Schedule was open until 6 November 2026; its proposed table keeps the storage thresholds of 5,000 m² of gross floor space and 1 hectare, and the proposal is not law.

Can a farm, office or industrial building change to storage under permitted development?

Part 4 Class B of Northern Ireland’s 2015 permitted development Order provides for a change from light industrial (Class B2) or general industrial (Class B3) use to storage (Class B4) where the change relates to 235 m² of floor space or less. In the Schedule to the General Permitted Development Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 as captured on 17 October 2026, the words “to a use falling within Class B4” occur once, in Part 4 Class B.

Class B2 is use for any industrial process that can be carried out without detriment to amenity from noise, smell, dust and similar effects, and Class B3 is use for any other industrial process.

On 17 October 2026 we found no class in the Schedule that changes an agricultural, retail or office use to Class B4.

Part 9 Class A provides for the erection, extension or alteration of an industrial building or a warehouse (a building used for any purpose within Class B4) within the curtilage of an existing one, with limits on size and position. Its conditions include use only for storage or distribution “for the purposes of the undertaking” or for ancillary employee facilities.

On 17 October 2026 we found no class in the Schedule to the Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015, or in its 2026 amending order, that changes an agricultural building to a flexible use, and none named Class R, England’s class for agricultural buildings. The only agricultural-building text we found in the Schedule is in Part 7, which provides for works on agricultural land “reasonably necessary for the purposes of agriculture within that unit”.

In England’s General Permitted Development Order, Part 3 Class I (substituted 1 August 2021) provides for a change from Class B2 to Class B8 where it relates to no more than 500 m² of floor space. Class R provides for a change from an agricultural building to a flexible use that includes Class B8, up to 1,000 m² in total within an agricultural unit (figure substituted 21 May 2024).

Our guide to Class R covers England’s class, and our guide to farm diversification into storage covers the farm route.

In the Northern Irish Order, Part 37 provides for solar equipment on a building other than a dwellinghouse or block of flats (Class A) and stand-alone solar up to 2 metres high and 30 m² (Class B), each with conditions, and our guide to energy certificates and solar covers the energy rules.

The latest amendment we found, SR 2026/80, in operation from 13 May 2026, does not touch Class B4, Part 4, Part 9 or Part 37. On 17 October 2026 the Department’s two screening forms for its review of permitted development rights named three 2026 workstreams, none about storage.

What does a Northern Ireland planning application for storage cost, and how long does it take?

On the Northern Irish fee scale, a full application for a new non-residential building of 1,000 m² comes to £6,076 from 1 April 2025, against £9,226 on England’s from 1 April 2026 (our calculation). Local applications of all development types, not storage, took a median of 19.6 weeks in 2025/26 against a 15-week target.

The fee scale in force on 17 October 2026 is the one that SR 2025/49, the Planning (Fees) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2025, substituted into the Planning (Fees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 from 1 April 2025. On 17 October 2026 we found no 2026 amendment to the 2015 Regulations, from a search of titles, which would miss an amendment that does not say planning.

For “the erection of industrial, commercial, community and other buildings” (category 5), the fee is £434 for each 75 m² of gross floor space from over 75 m² up to 3,750 m², and above 3,750 m² it is £21,700 plus £129 for each further 75 m². Floor space is measured externally, and a part of a 75 m² step counts as a whole step.

On 17 October 2026 we found that category 5 does not name storage, and the Schedule does not say whether a storage building falls in it. At 1,000 m², 14 steps at £434 make £6,076 in Northern Ireland and 14 steps at £659 make £9,226 in England (our calculation).

For a material change of use other than to a dwelling (category 12(b)), the fee is £307 for each 75 m² of floor space, to a maximum of £15,350. At 1,000 m² that is 14 steps and £4,298, and the cap is reached above 3,675 m² (our calculation); England charges a flat £610 for a material change of use (category 14).

On 17 October 2026 we found no fee row for altering or extending an existing non-residential building as such; where an extension creates floor space, category 5 is the nearest row, in our reading.

England’s fee for a new building (category 2) and its flat fee for a material change of use (category 14) apply from 1 April 2026. On 17 October 2026 England’s draft fees, which would apply from 8 December 2026, were not made; if made as drafted they would raise the 1,000 m² figures to £10,626 and £732 (our calculation).

Schedule 4 of the Local Government (Performance Indicators and Standards) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 sets targets for each council of an average of 15 weeks for local applications and 30 weeks for major ones, from the date an application is valid to a decision or withdrawal. The Department’s statistics say “The average processing time is the median”.

In 2025/26 the median for local applications was 19.6 weeks against the 15-week target, 4.6 weeks over, and for major applications 41.4 weeks against 30, 11.4 weeks over (our calculation). Three of the 11 councils met the local target and two met the major one.

By council, the local median ran from 7.6 weeks in Fermanagh & Omagh and Mid & East Antrim to 45.8 in Newry, Mourne & Down. These are the Department’s figures for all development types, published on 26 August 2026, not figures for storage.

The Department’s “Change of use” development type had 581 decisions in 2025/26 and a median of 38.8 weeks, against 19.8 for all applications; a development type is the Department’s label, not self storage. Our guide to planning decisions and timescales prints its “Industrial” type.

On 17 October 2026 the newest release on the Department’s planning activity statistics page was the 2025/26 annual bulletin, published on 26 August 2026; we found no 2026/27 release.

An applicant whose permission is refused, or granted subject to conditions, may appeal to the Planning Appeals Commission within four months of the date of notification of the decision, or such other period as a development order specifies (section 58). On 17 October 2026 the Commission’s Appeals Guide said it “has no power to extend the period for making an appeal”. The Guide also says there is no third-party right of appeal. The fee is £150 from 13 August 2025.

If a council does not decide in time, section 60 treats the permission as refused, and section 58 does not apply to an application referred to the Department under section 29. Our guide to planning appeals covers the Commission.

Which drainage, building control and fire rules might a Northern Ireland storage site meet?

Three sets of rules might bear on a storage site: drainage policy, building control by the district council under the 2012 Building Regulations, and the fire duty of the person in control of the premises.

The Strategic Planning Policy Statement (paragraph 6.114) and Policy FLD 3 of Planning Policy Statement 15 (Revised) say a drainage assessment will be required for a residential development of 10 or more dwelling units, a development site “in excess of 1 hectare”, or “a change of use involving new buildings and/or hard surfacing exceeding 1000 square metres in area”.

On 17 October 2026, in our reading, neither policy states a threshold by building floor space, and the third trigger is the area of new buildings and/or hard surfacing in a change of use.

Both also require a drainage assessment, except for minor development, where there is “evidence of a history of surface water flooding” or where surface water run-off “may adversely impact upon other development or features of importance to nature conservation, archaeology or the built heritage”.

On 17 October 2026 we found no warehouse, self-storage, storage and distribution, storage-facility or Class B4 wording in the flood-risk section of the Strategic Planning Policy Statement Edition 2 or anywhere in Planning Policy Statement 15; the storage uses its flood text names are the storage of hazardous substances and fuel storage depots.

In policy, sustainable drainage is encouraged, not required: paragraph 6.118 says planning authorities “should encourage developers to use sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) as the preferred drainage solution”.

On 17 October 2026 the Assembly’s page for the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill showed the Committee Stage as “Completed 03 July 2026” and the Consideration Stage as “Scheduled for 12 October 2026”, while also listing that stage’s Official Report.

The Further Consideration Stage was “To be scheduled”, the Final Stage was “To be scheduled on completion of the Further Consideration Stage”, and Royal Assent “will be confirmed when the Bill has completed the legislative process”, so on 17 October 2026 the Bill was not law.

The Department’s DfI Rivers page on the Schedule 6 application says that to discharge to a watercourse, or carry out works that affect its free flow, “approval is required from DfI Rivers”, and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs says the discharge of trade or sewage waste to any waterway requires its consent.

In England the National Planning Policy Framework (chapter 18, published 29 September 2026) says a site-specific flood risk assessment “should accompany all development proposals in Flood Zones 2, 3a, and 3b”. In Flood Zone 1 it “should inform and accompany” proposals involving sites “of one hectare or more”, land identified as having critical drainage problems, and land identified as at risk of flooding from any source.

Its Annex F lists “general industry, storage and distribution” among buildings in the “Less vulnerable” class.

The Department of Finance is responsible for building regulations policy and legislation, and the current regulations are the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, in operation from 31 October 2012. Its page says a person who intends to erect, alter or extend a building, or to materially change its use, “must first seek approval to do so from your district council”.

Regulation 8 treats a change to use as a store as a material change of use: its eighth case is “the building is used as a store, where immediately prior to the change it was not”. On 17 October 2026 we found no source that says whether a self-storage building is a store for that case, so that is a question for the district council.

In England gov.uk says a person “may need approval from a building control body”, which can be the local authority’s department or “a private registered building control approver”. On 17 October 2026 we found no private building-control approver route on the Department of Finance’s building-regulations pages, which describe the district council.

Regulation 5 of England’s Building Regulations 2010 lists the changes that count as a material change of use, including “the building is used as a shop”, and on 17 October 2026 we found no store, storage or warehouse among them.

Technical Booklet E (Fire safety), read with Amendments Booklet 9 effective from 6 May 2025, classifies a “Place for the storage or deposit of goods or materials” as Purpose Group 7(a). On 17 October 2026 we found no mention of self storage, storage unit or lock-up in it; its storage wording is Purpose Group 7(a) and, in its Table 2.2, “Storage and warehouse accommodation”.

Articles 25 and 26 of the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 put duties on employers and on a person who has control, to any extent, of “relevant premises”; in England article 8 of the 2005 Order puts the duty on “the responsible person”. Our guide to converting a building into self storage covers the fire duty and listed buildings.

How do Northern Ireland business rates work for 2026-27?

A Northern Ireland rate bill is the property’s net annual value times the non-domestic poundage, which is the regional rate plus the council’s district rate: 57.84p to 72.16p in the pound for 2026-27 (our conversion).

nibusinessinfo.co.uk, Invest Northern Ireland’s business-advice site, says the Executive sets the regional rate each year and each district council sets its own district rate. Net annual value is the amount Land & Property Services estimates a property might reasonably be expected to let for from year to year, on the assumptions the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977 sets out.

The regional rate for 2026-27, the year ending 31 March 2027, is 30.79 pence in the pound, fixed by the Rates (Regional Rates) Order (Northern Ireland) 2026 (SR 2026/19), made on 19 February 2026 and affirmed by the Assembly on 10 March 2026; it was 29.89p in 2025-26.

The Department of Finance’s Rate Poundages table for 2026-27 gives each council’s district rate, from 27.05p in Fermanagh & Omagh to 41.37p in Derry City & Strabane, the highest 1.53 times the lowest (our calculation; our conversion of the table’s pounds per £1 of net annual value).

The Department of Finance says warehouses are valued by applying a unit price per square metre to the internal floor space of different parts of the building. For a newly built business property, nibusinessinfo.co.uk says Land & Property Services has to value it before a bill is issued, that a delay in having it valued may lead to a backdated bill, and that a change to the premises or to what is done there can change the value.

The same site lists “most farmland and farm buildings” among types excluded from the valuation list, and on 17 October 2026 we found no source that says how a converted farm building is rated or from when. Our guide to self storage on the business rates list covers the rating entries.

The list in use for non-domestic property became operative on 1 April 2023 and is based on values at 1 October 2021. The Department of Finance’s news item of 29 January 2026, headed “Finance Minister halts Reval 2026 process”, says the Finance Minister “has stopped the Reval 2026 process”. In our reading, the 2026-27 poundages are applied to the list that began in 2023.

The Department of Finance’s NI Reval2026 page and nibusinessinfo.co.uk’s news item of 2 February 2026 say the Finance Minister “announced a pause of the Reval 2026 process” and that the page “will be updated when the next steps are confirmed”.

On 17 October 2026 we found no later statement of a new date or of resumed work. The NI Reval2026 page says the draft schedule of values “has now been published”, and its key dates still list new bills on 1 April 2026.

England works rates out differently: rateable value times a multiplier, which for 2026-27 is 43.2p below £51,000 of rateable value, 48p from £51,000 to £499,999 and 50.8p at £500,000 or more. That is a different base from a different list, so the two sets of numbers are not like for like. On 17 October 2026 the examples on gov.uk of the businesses that can use England’s lower retail, hospitality and leisure multipliers did not include storage.

Which rates reliefs might a new storage site in Northern Ireland meet?

On 17 October 2026 we found no relief for a new building or for renewable plant among the nine reliefs and support schemes that nibusinessinfo.co.uk lists; the five relief pages we did not read are small Post Offices, charitable exemption, sports and recreation, residential homes and hardship.

nibusinessinfo.co.uk says Small Business Rate Relief takes 50% off where the net annual value is £2,000 or less, 25% where it is more than £2,000 and not more than £5,000, and 20% where it is more than £5,000 and not more than £15,000. It says the relief has been extended to cover the 2026-27 rating year, and excludes unoccupied properties and a ratepayer that occupies more than three premises.

Our calculation, with the bill worked out as net annual value times the total 2026-27 poundage and the percentage taken off the whole bill, at net annual values we chose that are not a storage figure, in Fermanagh & Omagh and Derry City & Strabane:

• £1,500 (50% off): £867.60 becomes £433.80 and £1,082.45 becomes £541.23.
• £10,000 (20% off): £5,784.02 becomes £4,627.22 and £7,216.35 becomes £5,773.08.
• £15,001, just above the top level (no relief): £8,676.61 and £10,825.25.

nibusinessinfo.co.uk says industrial derating applies to premises “primarily used and occupied as a factory” and lists storage among the premises outside it. The Rates Order says a property “shall be deemed not to be occupied and used as a factory if it is primarily occupied and used for” purposes that include “the purposes of storage”. On 17 October 2026 we found no source that applies either rule to a self-storage facility.

On 17 October 2026 the Non-Domestic Vacant Rating page, which shows no date, said no vacant rates are payable under a net annual value of £2,000, and that at £2,000 or more rates are not payable for three months from the date a property becomes empty, then 50% of the normal occupied amount.

The page says that, generally, a property is considered vacant where it is unoccupied, unfurnished, and “not used for storage purposes”. On 17 October 2026 we found no separate or longer rate-free period for a storage building on that page.

The explanatory note to the Rates (Microgeneration) Order (Northern Ireland) 2012, which legislation.gov.uk held only as made on 17 October 2026, says microgeneration capacity, up to 50 kilowatts for electricity from solar power, “is not taken into account in a valuation for rating purposes”. The Department of Finance’s practice note says a property with more than 50 kW installed is rateable, and gives as its example “a factory with rooftop solar panels for self-consumption”.

Who pays rates on a storage container unit in Northern Ireland?

On 17 October 2026 we found no Northern Irish source that says how a self-storage unit or a storage container is entered in the valuation list, or who the ratepayer is for one.

We read the 11 “self storage” and 108 “storage container” results on nibusinessinfo.co.uk, page 1 of the 300 results for “self storage” on nidirect, the Department of Finance’s valuation, poundage and practice-note pages, and the Rates Order’s articles and schedules on rating. On 17 October 2026 we found no valuation practice note for self-storage, storage units or storage containers among the 72 practice notes that the Department of Finance lists for NI Reval2023.

The cold-store note classifies cold stores in the Valuation List class “Warehouses, Stores, Workshops, (Non-Ind) Garages, Manufactories”, and on 17 October 2026 we found no page that says which class holds a self-storage facility.

Article 18(1) of the Rates Order makes the occupier of a property in the valuation lists chargeable to rates. Article 20(1), as legislation.gov.uk held it on 17 October 2026, makes the owner chargeable instead of the occupier in five cases:

• a net annual value of £750 or less;
• a capital value of £150,000 or less;
• payments for the premises made at intervals shorter than quarterly, or an agreement silent on the point, with a net annual value of £1,590 or less;
• separate parts let as apartments or lodgings; and
• a house in multiple occupation.

Whether the occupier of a unit or container is the business that runs the site or the person who stores goods in it is therefore an open question for Land & Property Services.

What is Stamp Duty Land Tax on buying a storage site in Northern Ireland?

On 17 October 2026 the gov.uk overview said Stamp Duty Land Tax is payable on property or land bought in England and Northern Ireland. The gov.uk page of non-residential rates printed bands of 0% up to £150,000, 2% from £150,001 to £250,000 and 5% above £250,000.

The tax is charged on increasing portions of the price, so each rate applies only to the slice in its band. The example on that page, a freehold commercial property bought for £275,000, owes £3,250: 0% on the first £150,000, 2% on the next £100,000 and 5% on the rest.

On 17 October 2026 we found nothing that makes Stamp Duty Land Tax different in Northern Ireland: the gov.uk overview names England and Northern Ireland together, and the bands page does not mention Northern Ireland or give a Northern Irish rate, band, threshold or exception. On 17 October 2026 the bands page named no nation, so reading its bands as the Northern Irish bands is our reading.

Our calculation, charging each rate on its slice of the price: £500,000 owes £2,000 plus 5% of £250,000, or £14,500, and £1,000,000 owes £2,000 plus 5% of £750,000, or £39,500.

This section describes a freehold purchase. The page of non-residential rates on gov.uk also describes a new long-term right to occupy non-residential property bought for a premium, which is taxed on the premium and, separately, on the present value of the annual payments; we did not read those rules.

The gov.uk overview says a return and the tax go to HM Revenue and Customs within 14 days of completion. On 17 October 2026 no “applies from” date showed on the gov.uk pages we captured, and we did not read HM Revenue and Customs’ own pages. For VAT on a storage site, see our glossary entry on VAT on self storage.

What this guide does not cover

• Scotland and Wales. Our guides to starting a self storage business in Scotland and in Wales cover them.
• England beyond the contrast. Our guide to business rates for a storage business covers England’s scheme.
• Energy certificates and solar. Our energy guide covers them.
• Converting a building, licences and containers. Our conversion guide, licences guide and guide to planning permission for storage containers cover them.
• Appeals and statistics. Our guides to planning appeals and planning decisions and timescales by type cover them.
• What we did not read. On 17 October 2026 we read no council page and no page of the Planning Portal itself (its front page opens on a cookie notice and a log-in application), so nothing here says how a council applies these rules.
• Also not read. The Land & Property Services valuation-list search, the five relief pages named above, HM Revenue and Customs’ own pages, waste permits, hedgerows, the data protection fee and consumer law.
• Developer contributions. On 17 October 2026 we found no levy or infrastructure charge in the table of contents of the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011; the money from a developer it lists is planning agreements under section 76.

A Northern Ireland solicitor or planning consultant is the person to check each legal reading in this guide with.

Questions to put to the authorities and a Northern Ireland solicitor

• Land & Property Services: how is a self-storage facility or a container site entered in the valuation list, and who is the ratepayer for each unit?
• Land & Property Services: from what date is a newly built building rated, and how is a converted farm building rated and from when?
• Land & Property Services: could industrial derating or vacant property relief apply to the use?
• The council, as planning authority: which use class and which route fit the building’s lawful use today, is the scheme major development, which fee category applies, and is a drainage assessment needed?
• DfI Rivers: is a Schedule 6 approval needed for a discharge to a watercourse?
• The district council, as building control: which Parts apply to the change to a store?
• A Northern Ireland solicitor or tax adviser: what is the Stamp Duty Land Tax position on the purchase, including any long-term right to occupy?

Sources

All read on 17 October 2026.

• Planning Act: the Planning Act (Northern Ireland) 2011, including section 25, section 26, section 27, section 29, section 58, section 60 and section 76.
• Planning regulations: the Development Management Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, with their Schedule, regulation 2, regulation 3 and regulation 5, and SR 2025/128 (made 8 July 2025, in operation 1 August 2025).
• Use classes and permitted development: the Planning (Use Classes) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015 as made, with its article 3; the Planning (General Permitted Development) Order (Northern Ireland) 2015; and its 2026 amending order, SR 2026/80 (in operation 13 May 2026).
• Policy: the Department for Infrastructure’s Strategic Planning Policy Statement, Edition 2 (published 11 December 2025), its retained planning policy page (last updated 15 January 2026) and plan strategies page, and Planning Policy Statement 4 (November 2010), 15 Revised (September 2014) and 21 (June 2010).
• Planning system and reviews: the Department for Infrastructure’s NI Planning System page, its consultation on the classes and thresholds (closing 6 November 2026), and its permitted development review screening forms of 9 January 2026 and 2 October 2026.
• Planning fees: the Planning (Fees) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, Schedule 1 as substituted by SR 2025/49, with the Department for Infrastructure’s planning fees page and explanatory note for applicants (with effect from 1 April 2025); SR 2025/137 for the appeal fee.
• Statistics, targets and appeals: the Department for Infrastructure’s Northern Ireland Planning Statistics 2025/26 (published 26 August 2026) and planning activity statistics page; Schedule 4 of the Performance Indicators and Standards Order 2015; the Planning Appeals Commission’s Appeals Guide.
• Drainage and flood: the Assembly’s page for the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill; DfI Rivers’ Schedule 6 page (last updated 18 June 2024); the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs’ water discharges page.
• Building control and fire: the Department of Finance’s building regulations page, appeals page and Technical Booklet E (last updated 6 May 2025); the Building Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2012, regulation 8 and Schedule 2; the Fire and Rescue Services (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.
• England, planning: on gov.uk, planning fees from 1 April 2026 (page last updated 27 February 2026) and fees guidance; on legislation.gov.uk, the draft fees regulations, the Use Classes Order 1987, Part 3 of the 2015 permitted development Order and section 70 of the 1990 Act.
• England, flood, building and fire: the National Planning Policy Framework, chapter 18 and Annex F (published 29 September 2026); the building regulations approval page on gov.uk; regulation 5 of the Building Regulations 2010; article 8 of the Fire Safety Order 2005.
• Business rates law: the Rates (Northern Ireland) Order 1977, including article 18, article 20, Schedule 2, Schedule 4 and Schedule 12; the Regional Rates Orders of 2026 and 2025; the Rates (Microgeneration) Order (Northern Ireland) 2012, as made.
• Business rates, Department of Finance: Rate Poundages, non-domestic valuation, valuation lists, NI Reval2026, the news item of 29 January 2026, and the practice notes for cold stores and renewable energy.
• Business rates, nibusinessinfo.co.uk: how business rates are calculated, NI Reval2026 (2 February 2026), types of premises, valuation of a new property and changes to your property.
• Reliefs, nibusinessinfo.co.uk: help available, Small Business Rate Relief, Industrial Derating, Non-Domestic Vacant Rating and Back in Business rate support.
• England, rates and buying tax: on gov.uk, Estimate your business rates, business rates overview, Stamp Duty Land Tax and its non-residential rates.
• The Planning Portal: the Department for Infrastructure’s New Planning Portal page.