The City That Cannot Build Fast Enough
London needs 88,000 new homes a year, the highest housing target of any region in the country. In the twelve months to March 2026 it delivered 6,325. Private-sector starts are down 84% since 2015, and in a single quarter 23 of the capital's 33 boroughs recorded no new housing starts at all. Meanwhile the population is forecast to pass 9.9 million by 2047. This is the market we learned to build in, and it is not an easy one.
Our story →6,325
Homes delivered in a year, against a target of 88,000
9.97M
London's forecast population by 2047
47%
Of Greater London is green
300+
Languages spoken, more than any city on earth
The city behind the standard we build to.
The market
Supply, and the lack of it
London's housing target is the highest of any UK region and its delivery gap the widest. Building has become punishing: the cost of delivering a single home has risen by £76,000 since 2020, around 40% of that from new taxes and regulation. The sales market is soft too, with off-plan sales falling from over half of new homes a decade ago to 11%. Few developers are building at all.
88,000 homes needed a year · 6,325 delivered · Starts down 84% since 2015
Connections
Five airports, one tube map
Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and London City serve the capital between them, with Paris a few hours away by train. Inside the city, the Underground, Overground and Elizabeth line put most of London within an hour of most of the rest of it.
5 international airports · Paris by train · 11 tube lines
Green space
The world's first National Park City
London was declared the world's first National Park City in 2019. Roughly 47% of the capital is green and more than 60% is undeveloped, with 8.4 million trees across around 3,000 parks and 35,000 acres of public green space. New York, by comparison, is 14% parkland.
47% green · 8.4 million trees · c.3,000 parks
Culture
Most of it free
The national collections cost nothing to enter: the British Museum, Tate Modern, the V&A, the Natural History Museum. The city holds close to 200 museums, 300 libraries and 800 bookshops, alongside a West End that is one of the two great theatre capitals in the world.
c.200 museums · Free national collections · 800 bookshops
A global city
300 languages
More languages are spoken here than in any other city on earth, and around 41% of Londoners were born outside the UK. The capital holds 17 ranked universities, more than any other UK city, and ranks first in the world as a student city.
300+ languages · 41% born outside the UK · 17 ranked universities
The long view
Why it holds
Over 20 million international visitors arrive each year, placing London consistently among the three most visited cities in the world. More than 340,000 households sit on social housing waiting lists. Demand here is structural, not cyclical, which is why the standard a city demands of its builders matters.
20m+ international visitors a year · Top 3 most visited city · 340,000 households waiting
Sources: JLL, Molior, Home Builders Federation, Greater London Authority, Greenspace Information for Greater London (January 2026), ONS, QS World University Rankings 2026, City of London Corporation, London Museum. Correct as of August 2026.
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