Barratt said this week that it was returning to the market and was ready to take on new schemes in the capital.
The housebuilder, which has a debt pile of £1.4bn, is considering “new investment models” to help it to weather the economic downturn and return to expanding its portfolio.
Alastair Baird, managing director for Barratt London, said that the group was in talks with institutional investors, housing associations, local authorities and student housing providers about different ways to finance developments.
“It’s been extremely tough,” he said, “but we are successfully trading through. We have started six sites since Christmas and we are actively looking for new sites.
“We are rethinking viabilities and, frankly, doing what would have been unthinkable two years ago. The profit is still there, but we need to unlock it in a different format than we have in the past.”
Barratt said that it now put a much greater emphasis on working with public sector bodies, including the Homes and Communities Agency and the London Development Agency. The group has also held meetings with 25 of London’s 33 boroughs about how to keep development moving and unlock brownfield sites.
In its interim management statement last month, the housebuilder said that it would spend £300m on land nationally in the year to the end of June 2009.
