John Dingle

John Dingle is a partner in our award-winning Commercial Property team and advises clients from both our Reading, Henley-on-Thames and Wokingham offices, as well as remotely.

He has 20 years’ experience of a wide range of transactions, including land development (working with landowners and developers), commercial leases,  the sale and purchase of freehold and leasehold property (working with landlords, tenants and investors), property finance (secured lending), and public and private health sector work.

John has been recommended in the UK's leading guides to law firms, Chambers UK Guide and The Legal 500, and is recognised as a 'leading partner' in the latter. 

John joined Blandy & Blandy from what is now Blake Morgan as an associate solicitor in 2013 and became a partner in 2015.

In the past six years we have been named as a finalist in the ‘Property Law Firm of the Year’ category at the Thames Valley Property Awards three times (2017, 2018 and 2023), winning in 2017. Recently, we were also named ‘Property Law Firm of the Year’ at the 2023 Insider South East Property Awards and 'Best Law Firm' at the 2023 Royal Berkshire Property Awards. Our successful approach is further reflected in the excellent client feedback we continue to receive.

Examples of recent work

• The sale by a university landowner to a national housebuilder of a brownfield development site with planning permission for 126 homes for over £20,000,000 (plus overage). The transaction involved the existence of radioactive contamination, the construction of a new access to retained land, the construction of SUDS and a SANG, overage provisions, and payment by promissory note backed by a security deposit.
• Taking security over multiple properties with a value in excess of £12,000,000 in connection with a loan of over £7,000,000 for our national bank client. The loan was to fund the purchase of a commercial unit in order to complete the full ownership of an estate, and completion took place within four weeks, despite the presence of a number of obstacles including complex issues associated with unity of seisin.
• An option agreement between our landowner client and a major housebuilder for the residential development of more than 80 houses on over 30 acres of land, with a minimum purchase price of £5,000,000 (plus overage) and the operation of deferred payment provisions to the extent that the purchase price exceeded £15,000,000.
• The multi-million pound development, by a private healthcare provider, of a new-build diagnostics centre on an NHS hospital site and the associated refurbishment of adjoining existing clinical space, linked to a 15 year services contract for the provision of MRI diagnostic scans and the subsequent grant of multiple leases and sub-leases.
• The purchase of hotel and mixed-use city centre properties of strategic importance to a hotelier client for £8,400,000. The acquisitions involved TOGC mechanisms, funder security over multiple properties, constitutional variations, the subordination of shareholder debt, and a BVI corporate seller.
• The multi-million pound disposal under a conditional contract of a care home development site and the related disposal for a minimum sale price of £5,000,000 of an adjoining residential development site for the development of not less than 100 homes pursuant to a promotion agreement. The transactions also involved the complex provision of associated infrastructure for our client’s development of further housing and a Montessori nursery on retained land.
• The approx. £6,000,000 acquisition of a hotel and ancillary properties as part of the expansion of a national portfolio.
• The conditional acquisition of a brownfield residential redevelopment site in south west London with a GDV of approx. £19,000,000.
• A sale under option subject to planning of a student housing site for not less than 50 units with a market value of £4,600,000, involving extensive restrictive covenants, several overage mechanisms, a right of pre-emption, an option to buy-back, and a lease-back with option to renew.