The British Property Federation (BPF) has released a new report finding that the number of build-to-rent homes started in the capital last year plummeted
Just 613 London rental homes were started last year due to economic and regulatory challenges.
This is an 80% year-on-year drop from 2024.
The number of build-to-rent starts also dropped elsewhere
The London market took the hardest hit in build-to-rent starts last year, but the rest of the country was not much better off. Year-on-year, starts fell by 37% in the rest of the regions, dropping from 12,781 to 8,063.
In terms of planning, however, there has been a nationwide rise of 17% in the number of detailed planning consents granted, to 67,307. This is good news, but it is somewhat hampered by the continually slow progress of projects from consent to construction and completion, and it is expected that pipeline issues will continue.
Danny Pinder, director of the British Property Federation, said, “Build-to-Rent homes are a critical part of the new homes market and can make a key contribution to the Government’s ambitious 1.5 million homes target, especially given the model’s incentive to deliver high-quality professionally managed homes at pace. Incoming regulation for the wider rental sector as well as broader tax changes announced at the Budget will continue to accelerate landlord departures from the private rented sector and adversely impact the supply of buy-to-let homes in markets across the country, placing even more urgency on the need for purpose built rental housing to ensure the supply of rental homes keeps pace with demand.
“Changes implemented at the Building Safety Regulator towards the end of 2025 are showing signs of having an encouraging impact on the speed of decision-making. If 2025’s regulator delays can be eliminated in 2026, this should help remove one significant barrier to the delivery of new homes and alleviate some of the viability challenges developers are facing. Planning reform should also start to take shape in 2026, providing increased certainty around delivery and translating into an uptick in construction activity. Nevertheless, today’s statistics highlight the scale of difficulties facing the sector and the housing delivery pipeline as we head in to 2026.”
Build-to-rent could help revive the industry
Writing in December 2025, the head of build to rent at LRG, Justine Edmonds, said that build-to-rent must move from a growing sector to a mainstream sector in the built environment.
Justine wrote: “If the government is serious about delivering 1.5m homes, BTR cannot sit on the sidelines. A realistic model for large sites is not the traditional 70% market / 30% affordable split, but a three-way blend of open market housing, affordable housing and BTR. A 33/33/33 approach allows BTR to play a full role, including discounted market rent, while still delivering a serious volume of affordable homes.
“By contrast, the new “Grey Belt” rules, with an expectation of up to 50% affordable housing on former Green Belt, risks tipping schemes into non-viability once infrastructure, remediation, biodiversity net gain and design standards are factored in. In London we have seen what happens when targets outrun the market’s capacity to deliver: starts collapse and affordable output falls with them.
“My prediction for 2026 is a clear divergence. Authorities that embrace BTR as a formal tenure in their local plans will see large, complex sites move forward. Those that cling to blanket 50% requirements on challenging land will watch landowners and funders look elsewhere.”
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