Market News
Sales of new build homes in London collapse to just 26 in June - EVENING STANDARD
The number of sales of new homes recorded in London fell to a catastrophic low of just 26 in June, according to official new figures today.
Latest data from the Land Registry reveals how spectacularly the capital’s new homes market has collapsed this year. The 26 sales in June - the most recent month for which figures are available - follows 37 in May and 29 in April in updated Land Registry records. Across the three months as a whole new home sales totalled just 92.
Although the monthly figures are likely to rise over time as more completions are recorded with the Land Registry the totals are unlikely to get anywhere near the average of around 1000 a month that is typical for London.
Even in the worst month of the pandemic in May 2020 there were 366 new home sales across the capital, according to the Land Registry.
But in several London boroughs sales of new homes has been at a halt all year. In Merton, a borough with a population of around 220,000 not a single new home sale has been recorded at the Land Registry throughout the whole of 2025.
In Richmond upon Thames, which has a population of around 200,000 just one new home sale, in March, has been registered so far this year
The alarming new figures come ahead of an expected emergency package of measures to kick-start London house building which has ground to a new halt.
They are expected to include a relaxation of Sadiq Khan’s requirement that new developments must include at least 35% affordable housing to qualify for fast track planning approval. This is likely to be reduced to 20% for a temporary period.
In an article published by the Standard this week, one of London’s leading developers Tom Goodall, chief executive director of Related Argent, the company behind the Kings Cross and Brent Cross Town regenerations, described the current depressed state of housebuilding in London as “an outrage.”
He said : “Reducing the fast-track threshold to 20% wouldn’t be a gift to developers. It would be a recognition of the economic reality we find ourselves in and a pragmatic move to get cranes back on the skyline and construction sites moving again. It’s about creating the conditions to build more homes, including affordable ones, to tackle the growing crisis unfolding before us.”
Earlier this month analysts Molior London warned the number of private homes under construction in London is set to slump to as few as 15,000 - about a quarter of “normal” levels - by the end of next year.
The Government’s Help to Buy scheme which supported the purchase of thousands of new build homes in London came to an end in 2023 and has not been replaced.
