Housebuilding giants hit with £4.5bn lawsuit for allegedly overcharging buyers

Seven of Britain’s largest housebuilders are facing a class action lawsuit worth a potential £4.5bn in damages over allegations they overcharged 700,000 buyers of new-build properties.

Mark McLaren, former parliamentary and legal affairs manager at consumer group Which?, is planning on launching the claim against FTSE 100 firms Barratt Redrow and Persimmon, FTSE 250 companies Taylor Wimpey, Berkeley and Bellway as well as Bloor Homes, Vistry Group and its Countryside Partnerships division.

The housebuilders are facing claims customers who purchased new build homes between October 2015 and June this year had to pay higher prices, accusing firms of breaching UK competition law.

The action will head to the Competition Appeal Tribunal and follows a discontinued investigation by the Competition and Markets Authority, closed in October 2025 without action being taken, into whether housebuilders shared commercially sensitive information for two years until February 2024.

The lawsuit, led by McLaren, and represented by competition law firms Geradin Partners and Hausfeld, alleges the property buyers paid more for homes because of less competition between the major housebuilders, for more than ten years.

Shares slump

Shares in housebuilders moved to prominent positions at the bottom of the FTSE 100 and the FTSE 250. 

Persimmon was the biggest single faller on London’s top-tier stock index in late morning trade, down 2.3 per cent at 1,057p. Barratt Redrow fell 1.9 per cent to 278.3p.

On the mid-cap benchmark, London brownfield developer Berkeley Group was 1.5 per cent lower at 3,548p. Taylor Wimpey was 0.9 per cent weaker at 79.6p. Vistry’s stock fell 0.5 per cent to 254p and Bellway was down 1.5 per cent at 1,954p. 

Despite Monday’s price action, City experts were doubtful of the legal action’s chances of success. Anthony Codling, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, said:

“We believe that homebuilders are price takers not price setters and compete against the much larger existing homes market with new build sales accounting for around 12 per cent of housing transactions.”

He warned that the bank’s sector analysts “are not legal experts” but “thought it worth putting numbers on the potential impact on the housebuilders”. 

Their conclusion was that if the case was successful, damages could be “in the range of £2.2bn to £4.5bn.”

Housebuilders hit a wall

The market reaction revealed how the sector’s recent struggles have left it vulnerable to pressure from the ins-and-outs of daily news flow flashing across City trading screens. 

It has struggled to get near government building targets. The Labour government’s pledge to complete 1.5m homes during its term in office has come against mounting costs and red tape. 

The latest pledge for the biggest social housing building initiative since the war, from Andy Burnham, widely seen as Keir Starmer’s likely successor as prime minister, has tey to rally the sector’s shares. 

Hopes for lower interest rates into the second half of the year from the Bank of England was up-ended by a wave of inflation rippling out from the Gulf amid war in the Middle East, which sent energy costs surging. 

Potential homebuyers have stayed on the sidelines over concerns that rate hikes would lift mortgage costs in the autumn, or even late summer. 

David Morrison, senior market analyst at  fintech and financial services provider Trade Nation, said: “I don’t think that this class action has helped, although one must question its chances of succeeding”.

He pointed to the wider conditions in the market to explain the bleak run for shares in housebuilders. 

“A chart scan across the major players shows the sector has struggled since the fourth quarter of 2024. This is down to higher interest rates, higher material costs and strict planning regulations.”

A spokesperson from Berkeley said the group “is aware of the claim being pursued by Geradin Partners and Hausfeld. Given the nature of the proceedings, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this stage.”

Taylor Wimpey, Bellway, Bloor Homes, Vistry Group and its Countryside Partnerships division, and Barratt Redrow and Persimmon were contacted for comment.