Plummeting number of Build To Rent homes under construction

Plummeting number of Build To Rent homes under construction


Todays other news

The Build To Rent sector – which only recently reported a disappointing level of completions – now says that BTR homes securing planning consent have soared in number by 35%. 

But theanalysis, carried out by Savills, demonstrates what the British Property Federation calls “the continuing challenge of converting consents into construction output, with the number of new homes under construction contracting throughout 2024 and down 18% since Q4 2023.”

This drop in construction has been an ongoing trend over the past year, with completions consistently outpacing the number of starts and mirroring the decline in starts on site of new homes across England as a whole. 

This gap is continuing to widen, with 10,900 more homes completing in 2024 than starting. The slowdown in construction is being seen more acutely in London, which has seen a 22% contraction compared to 16% in the regions.

Despite this slowdown in the construction of new BTR homes, the federation insists there are “encouraging signs that the pre-commencement pipeline is starting to be replenished, with a marked increase in the number of planning consents granted in Q4 2024.”

This is most pronounced within London, which has seen the most BTR consents granted by English region at 7,523 homes, with 48% of those granted in 2024 within Q4. This represents a marked shift to previous years whereby the capital has lagged behind other regions in terms of BtR completions since the end of Q2 2022 due to a combination of planning challenges and build cost inflation.

Outside of the capital, the West Midlands recorded highest number of new consents across 2024, mostly driven by Birmingham which saw almost 3,700 homes consented out of 4,038. This highlights the rapid expansion of the BTR market across Birmingham over the last two years with nearly 12,000 homes either completed or under construction.

Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, comments:“Despite the continuing decline in the number of starts on sites and overall completions of new BtR accommodation, there are some tentative green shoots that the planning pipeline is improving. This positions the BTR sector quite well for when the development market once again picks up and is potentially an early sign at investor and developer confidence is slowly starting to return, especially within London.”

Guy Whittaker, head of UK Build to Rent research at Savills, insists that if challenges to construction could only be overcome, investors remain keen to invest in UK rented housing. Investment v

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