The Central London Development and BTR Report tracks development activity across London, including new targets for residential development, new homes sales and the performance of the Build to Rent sector.
Labour’s new approach to measuring housing need suggests 22% of new homes across England need to be built in Greater London. But new targets for London are 114% higher than recent net additions. At a time when an increase in development activity is required, the pipeline of new homes looks to be falling. Indicators of future delivery show 53% fewer starts so far this year compared to the ten-year average, while 64% fewer homes are gaining planning permission.
There were 3,244 new homes completed across London in Q3 2024 according to figures by Molior London. This brings the annual total to 15,360, 6% fewer completions than in the year to Q3 2023. Fewer starts across London are already impacting completions, with a drop off in starts over the last two years expected to mean levels of new build completions and new homes coming to the market continue to fall in 2025 creating scarcity as activity recovers.
London has the largest build to rent market in the UK, four times the size of Birmingham, the next largest market. London's multifamily market grew 3% in Q3 2024, with 77,600 homes either operational or in the pipeline. Of these, 45,800 (59%) are operational. Although the number of completed homes has risen 10% in the last year, the number of homes in the pipeline has fallen due to ongoing challenges around planning and development viability. The total pipeline of build to rent homes has fallen 6% to 31,800 in Q3 2024 (vs. Q3 2023).
