Figures released by the National House Building Council (NHBC), the UK’s largest provider of new home warranties and insurance, show 29,356 new homes were registered to be built in Q1 2025, up 36% on Q1 2024 (21,635) and 17% more than Q4 2024 (25,034).
In the same period, 26,120 new homes were completed, which is 1% down on Q1 2024.
However, in London, where new homes are often in high rise tower blocks that need to go through the new Building Safety Regulator for approval, there has been a 38% decline in registrations. This decline was also attributed to housing associations focusing their capital budgets on retrofitting existing stock rather than new build.
Aside from London, all other regions of the UK saw a rise in registrations year-on-year, with the biggest increases in Wales (+116%), the East Midlands (+102%) and West Midlands (+51%).
NHBC chief executive Steve Wood said: “Our figures for the first quarter of this year indicate growing confidence in the market with a 36% increase in developers registering their intent to build a new home compared to the same period last year.
“Although we can be distracted by global factors that continue to unsettle markets, the easing of inflation, lower mortgage rates, greater availability of lower deposit mortgages and a strong start to spring sales all point to improving prospects in UK house-building. This is particularly true for low-rise housing and for regions outside London, which are less affected by the delays in approvals from the Building Safety Regulator where the new gateway system is still bedding in.”
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