New-build transactions across the capital have all but dried up this year says a prominent lettings agency.

New builds accounted for just 0.9% of all London property transactions in H1 2025 says Benham and Reeves, which has analysed price paid data from the Land Registry.

In total, 24,847 transactions completed across the London market over the last six months, marking a 37% drop versus the previous half year.

A remarkably low 229 new-build transactions completed across the London market in the last six months. This is 0.9% of all transactions, with the level of new-build sales falling by 84% compared to the previous 12 months when they accounted for 3.7% of total market activity.

Across the City of London, Barking, Haringey, Lewisham, Havering and Merton, no new-build sales have completed at all, and in 15 other boroughs, new-build transactions accounted for below 1% of all activity.

Newham is the only borough bucking the wider trend, where new-build homes accounted for one in 10 transactions over the last six months. Brent also posted stronger levels of activity, with new builds making up 4.2% of sales, while Tower Hamlets followed at 3.5%.

Marc von Grundherr, director of Benham and Reeves, says: “The new-build sector in London has come under immense pressure over the last year. With developers grappling with higher material and labour costs, drawn-out planning processes, elevated interest rates and a more cautious level of buyer demand, it’s perhaps no surprise that sales volumes have dwindled.

“For many buyers, the premium price of a new-build home simply isn’t justifiable in the current climate when existing stock is more competitively priced and at the same time, developers have had to scale back launches in order to weather what has been an extremely challenging market environment.”

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