The number of completed BtR homes was over 17,000 homes between Q1 2024 and Q1 2025, bringing the total number of completed BtR homes to 127,150 according to analysis from the British Property Federation (BPF) and Savills.
There were more than 55,400 homes completed in London and 71,700 across the regions, with regional growth (18%) outpacing the capital (13%).
Melanie Leech, Chief Executive, BPF, said: “Completions remain robust, and planning activity is holding up well, but the sector is facing a real bottleneck in progressing schemes through to construction. Viability challenges, coupled with continued uncertainty around project timelines are slowing momentum just at a time when rental demand is rising sharply. Urgent action is needed in particular to deal with the pipeline blockage currently being caused by the Building Safety Regulator.”
Despite the number of homes completed, new starts have fallen for the fifth quarter in a row, with completions outstripping starts on site, leading to a 14% contraction in the number of homes under construction nationally. London has seen the steepest fall, down 18% year-on-year to just 15,000 homes under construction, while the regions dropped by 12% to 34,870.
Consented homes have risen 13% over the past 12 months and the total number of homes in planning, pre-consent, has grown by 5% to 109,920 units. However, detailed planning applications have fallen 16% since last quarter, raising concerns over longer-term supply.
Guy Whittaker, at Savills, said: “A continued trend this quarter has been the strength of Build-to-Rent completions, which reflect the positive sentiment of 2-3 years ago. Sentiment has been muted more recently as it has been more difficult to make multifamily development deals stack up.
“There are green shoots of recovery, however. The first quarter of 2025 marked the highest Q1 for new investment since 2022, supported by over £500m in urban multifamily forward funds, which will deliver over 1,500 homes once complete. There are significant challenges to future supply though, particularly for schemes facing building safety delays. This represents a substantial threat to current housing delivery and puts Government housing targets at risk.”
BtR continues to expand into new markets, with 215 local authorities now including BtR in their pipeline, an increase from 210 last year, with the Single Family BtR market seeing significant expansion, as 36,900 (13%) homes are currently under construction or in various stages of planning.
