New home registrations for Q2 2025 are up 4% on the same period last year and 4% more than Q1 2025
Figures released by the National House Building Council (NHBC) have provided an insight into the progress being made by both private and social housing providers towards hitting the government’s housebuilding targets.
The NHBC, a provider of new home warranties and insurance, confirmed that there were 20,924 private sector new home warranty registrations in Q2 2025, up 6% on Q2 2024 (19,728). The rental and affordable sector saw a 1% uplift in the same period, with 9,481 new homes registered in Q2 2025 versus 9,375 in Q2 2024.
Quarter-on-quarter, rental, and affordable registrations also rose 6% as the industry welcomed Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ £39bn Social and Affordable Homes programme over the next ten years.
Commenting on these figures, CEO at NHBC Steve Wood said: “The demand for social and affordable homes across the UK is acute, so it is encouraging to see long-term targeted funding for this sector. At NHBC, we are focused on supporting developers to ensure such new homes are built to the quality owners and occupiers should expect. This is particularly important in periods of growth.”
However, the picture of growing housing registrations was not consistent across the UK. The figures show that there was a rise in registrations in only 50% of the twelve UK regions, with London showing a fall of 59% to just 904 in Q2 2025, compared to the 2,191 registrations of Q2 2024. London had the lowest number of registrations of all UK regions. The highest increases were in Yorkshire and Humberside (+96%), the South West (+75%), and Northern Ireland (+44%).
Ascribing the lack of registrations in the capital to the impact of the new building safety regime, as well as less activity from housing associations, Wood explained that developers were more confident in building low-rise housing. This was born out of figures that showed apartment registrations across the UK were down 23% in Q2 2025 compared to the same period in 2024, whereas all other house type registrations were up, with terraced houses experiencing the largest increase at +33%.
New guidance on Gateway 2 applications has been issued by the Construction Leadership Council as the Building Safety Regulator and the construction industry look to get to grips with the new building safety regime. As previously reported by the FPA, the BSR cites a lack of sufficient detail as one of the key reasons for building control applications being rejected (73% of new-build applications).
Looking ahead, Wood said: “While some areas of the market remain subdued, we remain optimistic about the longer-term as planning and land restraints are increasingly unblocked, mortgage rates ease, and the Government sustains a focus on new home delivery.”
Figures from the National House Building Council (NHBC) show registrations slumped 59% in London in the three months to June.
You can access the full NHBC report here.