{"id":773879,"date":"2026-02-19T02:15:12","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:15:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/773879\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T02:15:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T02:15:12","slug":"capital-leaving-london-housing-market-not-down-to-lack-of-demand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/773879\/","title":{"rendered":"Capital leaving London housing market not down to lack of demand"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Capital leaving the London <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftadviser.com\/housing-market\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">housing market<\/a> not due to a lack of housing demand but from a \u201cfailure to deliver\u201d, ASK Partners head of origination, Joe Freedman, has suggested.<\/p>\n<p>Detailing the current state of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftadviser.com\/london\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">London<\/a> housing market, Freedman pointed to research from Molior which found just 5,547 private homes broke ground across the capital last year, a 84 per cent drop when compared to a decade ago.<\/p>\n<p>Against an annual requirement of roughly 88,000 homes, development has slowed to a trickle.<\/p>\n<p>Even with the modest uptick in starts that took place at the end of last year, Freedman said the pipeline remains \u201cdeeply inadequate\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He explained that Molior expects around 14,000 homes to complete in 2027 and 2028 combined, a more than 90 per cent shortfall.<\/p>\n<p>However, despite these development struggles, Freedman pointed out that capital has not completely abandoned London and, at the top end, activity is returning.<\/p>\n<p>Prime and super-prime London property increasingly looks attractive on the global stage as the capital still offers political stability, legal security, global connectivity, and cultural pull.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTax changes and softer pricing have reset expectations rather than killed demand, narrowing the gap between buyers and sellers and bringing liquidity back to best-in-class stock,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cVolume-led, mid-market schemes remain hardest to finance, while scarce, high-quality assets in prime locations continue to transact. Confidence in London itself remains intact. What\u2019s changed is how risk is priced.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that capital is \u201cselective not scarce\u201d in the London market with lenders and investors focusing on experienced sponsors, clear demand, and strong locations.<\/p>\n<p>Freedman additionally stated the collapse in housing starts should be a \u201cwake-up\u201d call for policymakers.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe government has put housebuilding at the centre of its growth agenda, yet London is on course to miss its targets by a wide margin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAmbitious targets are meaningless without practical delivery: faster, more consistent planning decisions, regulatory clarity, and policy frameworks aligned with today\u2019s build costs.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He added that, while recent improvements barely dent the shortfall, London still has a long way to go before supply and demand are close to balance.<\/p>\n<p>tom.dunstan@ft.com<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s your view?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Have your say in the comments section below or email us: ftadviser.newsdesk@ft.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Capital leaving the London housing market not due to a lack of housing demand but from a \u201cfailure&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":773880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,393,8370,4884,257,2516,16,15],"class_list":["post-773879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-ft-adviser","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-property","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116094889022865142","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/773880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}