Build-to-rent: UK boom in purpose-built properties
The number of build-to-rent completions in the last year has shot up in another sign the sector is here to stay in the UK.
Completions of built to rent properties – which refers to purpose built, institutionally owned and professionally managed residential blocks of flats – have risen by 16 per cent year on year, according to research from software platform Inventory Base.
By the end of the first quarter of 2024, the UK had seen a cumulative total of 109,847 built-to-rent home completions.
And by April 2025, this total had risen to 127,156 completions, marking an annual increase of 15.8 per cent, Inventory Base has found.
“The build to rent sector represents one of the most significant evolutions that residential property has seen in an awfully long time,” Siân Hemming-Metcalfe, operations director at Inventory Base, said.
“We fully expect delivery to reach new heights in the coming years, especially in cities and other densely populated areas of the country,” she added.
The figures follow a slew of new built to rent developments recently announced in London.
John Lewis is set to build hundreds of homes in West Ealing – naturally, alongside a Waitrose – while ING Real Estate have successfully closed a £61.6m senior investment loan to refinance a 256-apartment builg-to-rent property in Wembley.
BTR enjoys an influx of money
Investment into the sector has increased by around 50 per cent in the past year, according to analysis from Property Inspect.
This is in part due to a number of housing companies and institutional landlords pivoting to the sector.
The UK’s biggest landlord, Grainger, recently voiced its support for the sector, with £1.3bn and 4,565 homes in its pipeline.
Berkeley Group, too, established a build to rent platform in 2024, with plans to deliver around 4,000 homes over the next 10 years.
Hill Group has entered the build to rent sector via a deal with Lloyds Living for 246 built to rent apartments in Stevenage.
Ian Fletcher, director of policy at the British Property Federation, said there’s a “huge amount of investment interested in helping fund the chronic undersupply of new rental homes.”
Build-to-rent homes are particularly attractive and have a higher average yield than other types of rental properties, due to their novelty and procurement of amenities like gyms and a concierge.
As Savills notes, an increase in the supply of more expensive rental properties should ease inflation across the market due to the “ripple effect” of vacancies as people move up the ladder.
“With high market demand, strong yields, greater availability of finance, and the opportunity for a clean exit, we very much expect to see more and more developers showing preference for build to rent over build to sell,” Robert Sadler, Vice President of Real Estate at Excellion Capital, said.