The latest analysis from the British Property Federation and Savills has found that construction in the Build-to-Rent sector has slowed.
While the sector shows continued strength in terms of completions, the number of new starts has fallen behind for the fifth consecutive quarter.
From Q1 2024 to Q1 2025, over 17,000 BtR homes were completed, bringing the total number of completions to 127,150. Over 55,000 of these were completed in London while close to 72,000 were completed across the regions.
Despite this strong delivery, new starts have continued to lag behind for over a year, which has led 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.
The BPF says that the slowdown in construction reflects the broader challenges currently impacting housing delivery. Significant delays at the Building Safety Regulator are currently blocking schemes across the country, while concerns over development viability, driven by build cost inflation and the economic climate, are contributing to a cautious market. Taken together, these factors are slowing down delivery, as projects aren’t proceeding from outline planning through to detailed planning and ultimately into construction and delivery.
BtR continues to expand into new markets, with 215 local authorities now including BtR in their pipeline – up from 210 last year – with the Single Family BtR market playing a central role in this expansion, as 36,900 (13%) homes are currently under construction or in various stages of planning.
Melanie Leech, chief executive of the British Property Federation, commented: “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. Investor appetite is there but unlocking it will require a concerted effort to support the delivery of BtR homes. Urgent action is needed in particular to deal with the pipeline blockage currently being caused by the Building Safety Regulator.”
“The outlook for the remainder of the Parliament could be more positive, with specific support for Build-to-Rent expected as part of the government’s long-term housing strategy. Tackling backlogs and delays at the Building Safety Regulator, combined with planning reforms starting to bed in, could help provide more certainty around delivery. There’s no doubt that the sector’s ability to rapidly deliver high-quality, professionally managed homes will remain a vital part of the UK’s housing mix and the government’s ambitious 1.5 million homes target. “
Guy Whittaker at Savills added: “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 £500million 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 the government housing targets at risk.”
