A new survey of Build To Rent (BTR) by an industry supplier claims the sector is doing well.
But this is in sharp contrast to recent studies from authoritative BTR bodies.
The supplier, Property Inspect, claims investment in UK BTR is forecast to exceed £5.7 billion in 2026.
It claims BTR completions rose sharply in 2025, with an estimated 146,728 units delivered – a 13.4% increase on the 129,355 homes completed in 2024.
Meanwhile the number of BTR homes in planning reached 101,462 in 2025, up 1.7% year on year, with a 17.6% increase in schemes that have secured detailed planning permission and close to beginning construction.
However, this paints a very different picture to that drawn by the Association for Rental Living (ARL), consisting of finance houses and firms in Build To Rent,.
It has sent an angry open letter to key government figures.
It wants immediate action to benefit the BTR sector following the pull out by John Lewis Partnership (JLP) two weeks ago.
The ARL warns that BTR faces “slower housing delivery, reduced rental supply, increased affordability pressure and greater reliance on short-term or lower-quality stock.”
And another major BTR body wants government action to help the ailing sector.
The British Property Federation (BPF) has called on Chancellor Rachel Reeves to reinstate Multiple Dwellings Relief (MDR), a fiscal policy scrapped in 2024.
The BPF claims the abolition of MDR – a bulk purchase tax relief in the Stamp Duty Land Tax system in England and Northern Ireland – directly stalled or hampered the delivery of up to 25,000 BTR homes by allegedly making them unviable.
The BPF also claims that the cost to the Treasury of these unbuilt homes – from a combination of lost Stamp Duty Land Tax and economic activity associated with construction – outweighs the total saving made from abolishing the relief.
It says that in 2025 only 613 new BTR homes started construction in London – an 80% drop compared with 2024.
Out of London construction fell by 37% from 12,781 to 8,063 according to the BPF and Savills.
Investors have poured almost £40bn into the Build-to-Rent (BtR) sector over the past decade, with most of that cash being directed towards professionally managed multifamily housing schemes.
The findings from the property consultancy Knight Frank found that around £30bn, roughly 75% of total investment since 2015, has gone into apartment-led BtR developments.
That investor-led move is seeing the market being reshaped and move away from a purely development-led model towards a hybrid structure.
The firm says that completed assets are being traded alongside schemes still being built with early investors selling some of their first-generation schemes.
Room for growth
Knight Frank’s head of residential investment, Nick Pleydell-Bouverie, said “while significant progress has been made in UK multifamily housing, the opportunity for scale and future market growth remains enormous. Completed build to rent homes currently account for just 2.5% of our rental households in the UK.
Even a modest rise, by global standards, to 10% of the marketing being institutional ownership, would require the delivery of an additional 467,000 units.”
Since 2020, about 40% of operational multifamily transactions have involved new entrants to the sector with international investors featuring prominently.
Foreign investors lead
Knight Frank says almost 60% of that multifamily housing investment has come from overseas investors – mainly North American institutions.
The firm also says that construction cost pressures are easing with build-cost inflation at 4.5%, compared with a peak of 15.5% in mid-2022.
The consultancy recorded an average of 4.2 prospective tenants competing for each available home last year, while available supply remains almost 30% below pre-pandemic levels.
Population projections suggest further growth in the private rented sector with another 550,000 people entering the sector by 2036, rising to 1.5 million by 2050.
ARL urges government action for Build to Rent
The Association for Rental Living (ARL) is urging the government to take prompt action to support the UK’s Build-to-Rent (BtR) sector and address the increasing issue of viability that is deterring investment in new rental homes.
It warns that rising costs, regulatory change and weaker investment returns are discouraging investors from backing new BtR developments.
The intervention follows the withdrawal of the John Lewis Partnership from its BtR property business.
ARL’s chief executive Brendan Geraghty described that shock move as ‘deeply disappointing news and a real loss for consumers’.
The letter comes after the British Property Federation urged the Chancellor to use the Spring Statement this week to reinstate Multiple Dwellings Relief, arguing it would unlock stalled BtR schemes.
House builders target Build To Rent
UK house builders are accelerating their shift towards the Single Family Housing (SFH) sector of Build To Rent.
Analysis by Savills suggests there was a record £3.17 billion of investment in SFH 2025.
According to the report, house builders are increasingly adopting SFH to bolster sales rates, support long-term delivery and improve returns on capital.
Challenging market conditions in recent years have led many to diversify routes to sale, moving beyond the traditional private buyer and embracing institutional bulk sales.
Savills Research recently conducted a UK Single Family Housing (SFH) survey, speaking with 10 housebuilders that have collectively sold more than 15,000 new homes to investors over the past five years.
While only a minority planned significant SFH sales five years ago, 50% now expect to sell more than 15% of new homes to SFH investors between 2026 and 2030, signalling a step change in strategy.
The agency says early deals to provide SFH allow developers to fund subsequent phases, infrastructure and placemaking. This is becoming increasingly important as planning activity concentrates on larger schemes.
In 2024, the latest full-year available, 43% of homes granted full consent were on sites of 250+ units, up from one-third between 2015 and 2017.
The findings from Savills survey showed that 80% of housebuilders now view sales to SFH investors as a long-term component of their delivery strategies, rather than a short‑term response to slower private sales.
A Savills spokesperson says “our survey shows a fundamental shift in housebuilder strategy, with Single Family Housing now firmly embedded in delivery plans rather than used simply to counter short-term market pressures.”