There’s growing concern at the paltry level of housebuilding in London.

Only 2,158 private housing constructions were started in the capital in the first six months of 2025 – a mere 4.9% of the government’s target.

The second quarter of the year mustered just 731 new starts, half the Q1 rate.

The new figures – from the consultancy Molior – also showed just 3,950 new homes were sold in London during the first half of 2025. Sales rates are now as low as they were in early 2009.

Figures previously published by the Centre for Policy Studies found that London has just 427 homes for every 1,000 residents. If London were to match the average ratio in comparable European countries, it has an implied shortage of 1.1 million homes

Responding to the figures, Centre for Policy Studies spokesperson Ben Hopkinson says: “These latest figures should alarm policymakers and Londoners alike.

“The nation’s capital has probably the worst housing shortfall in Europe, and yet our planning and political system is preventing so much of the housebuilding we desperately need, to the point where the sector is almost at a standstill.

“A failure to tackle London’s housing shortages, and make it viable to build in the capital, is ruining people’s personal economic prospects, damaging their ability to become homeowners and start families, and holding back growth at a national level. We need to demolish the barriers to housebuilding across the UK, but nowhere more urgently than in London.”

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