New home completions to fall well below 300,000 target, Savills warns
New home completions in England will average 167,500 per year up to 2029/30, according to Savills.
New home completions in England will average 167,500 per year up to 2029/30, well below the Government target of 300,000 homes a year, according to research from Savills.
England is expected to deliver 837,500 new homes in total over the next five years.
Data showed that completions dropped by 4.1% to 190,602 in the year to March 2025.
The end of Help to Buy saw completions fall by 10.2% in two years.
Savills estimates around 189,000 new homes were built in 2025/26 and expects output to fall sharply, to just over 150,000 homes in both 2026/27 and 2027/28.
Annual full planning consents for new homes fell by 39% in three years to around 180,000 in 2025, starts are down 31% and Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) for new homes have fallen by 16%.
Build costs rose by 17.5% in four years to February 2026, while house prices increased by just 4.5%.
Emily Williams, director, residential research at Savills, said: “England’s housing delivery has proven to be reasonably resilient in the face of recent economic headwinds, but the underlying picture is becoming increasingly challenging.
“Low levels of planning consents and starts mean a thinner pipeline of homes under construction, while affordability pressures, higher interest rates and rising development costs are constraining demand and viability.
“The result is that completions are likely to fall sharply in the short term, with our forecast pointing to just 152,000 new homes in 2026/27.”
Williams added: “There are encouraging signs at the start of the planning process, but it will take time for those improvements to feed through. In the meantime, boosting demand remains the clearest policy lever for lifting delivery.”
Savills expects unsupported private sales to average 102,700 a year up to 2029/30, down from 107,500 over the previous five years.
Build to Rent completions are forecast to average 14,500 a year, compared with 15,500 previously.
Grant-funded affordable housing is forecast to average 29,200 homes a year, and Section 106 affordable housing 21,000 homes a year, 19% lower than the previous five years.
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