DATA: ONS reported CPI rose 3.6% in year to Oct 2025
This was slightly lower than the 3.8% reported for the previous month as “Housing and household services made the largest downward contribution to the monthly change in both CPIH and CPI annual rates”
DATA: Rightmove reported asking prices fell 0.5% in year to Nov 2025
They report(PDF) “a larger-than-usual November drop, as the decade-high number of homes for sale and Budget hiatus add to the seasonal slowdown in new seller pricing” and “asking price reductions of homes already on the market are at their highest level since February 2024, as sellers try to tempt bargain-hunting buyers”.
DATA: ONS/HMLR reported UK house prices rose 2.6% in year to Sep 2025
This was lower than the revised 3.1% increase reported for the previous month. They also report London house prices fell by 1.8% over the same period.
DATA: ONS reported UK private rents rose 5.0% in year to Oct 2025
This was lower than the 5.5% rise in September. They also report “In England, private rents annual inflation was highest in the North East (8.9%) and lowest in Yorkshire and The Humber (3.8%), in the 12 months to October 2025”.
DATA: MHCLG reported 208,600 net additions in 2024/25
The data for England shows a 6% decrease on the previous financial year with 190,600 new build completions, 17,710 changes of use, 3,850 conversions, 1,080 other gains and 4,630 demolitions. See Chart of the Week for more.
DATA: MHCLG reported 64,762 affordable completions in 2024/25
The data for England shows a 0.9% increase on the previous financial year with an 18.2% increase in social rented homes, a 1.3% decrease in affordable rented homes, and a 3.2% decrease in affordable home ownership homes. See Chart of the Week for more.
DATA: ONS published revised long-term migration estimates
They report “Our revised net migration estimate has cumulatively decreased by around 97,000 over the four-year period” because the “revised immigration estimate has increased cumulatively by 316,000” and “emigration has increased by 413,000”.
DATA(PDF): IMLA published mortgage market tracker for Q3 2025
They published their latest data on intermediary mortgage landers sentiment and business flows. They report “Intermediary confidence saw a slight fall in Q3” and the “app[lication] to completion conversion remains stable at 62%. It yields a typical pool of 10 client completions out of 17 applications”.
DATA: MHCLG published ad hoc statutory homelessness statistics
DATA: Financial Market Expectations For BoE’s Bank Rate
The chart provides a summary for the expected future level of Bank Rate based on daily data. The One Year figure was 3.39% on the 20th Nov compared to 3.36% on the 13th Nov.
DATA: New Build Energy Performance Certificates, England
This chart provides a summary of the number of EPCs on new build properties, a useful leading indicator for net additions. The 52-week rolling total was 208,881 for the week commencing 10th Nov, slightly lower than the 209,430 total for the previous week.
POLICY: MHCLG on housebuilding around train stations
They report “Housebuilding near well-connected train stations will receive a default “yes” in future if they meet certain rules” and “councils in England will also now be required to tell the government when they intend to reject new housing developments over a certain size, with the Housing Secretary able to have the final say on whether they should go ahead”. A consultation on reforms to the statutory consultee system was launched.
REPORT(PDF): HoC Environment Audit Committee on environmental sustainability & housing growth
The report “challenges the lazy narrative that nature is a blocker to housing delivery, instead arguing that a healthy environment is not a luxury but a necessity for resilient towns and neighbourhoods”. It identifies “A lack of cross-government policy alignment and co-ordination, fragmented data systems, and a dearth of ecological, planning and construction skills”.
REPORT: RTPI published State of the Profession 2025
They report “20% of planners surveyed say they plan to leave the profession in the next three years”, “58% report being overstretched frequently or all of the time in their roles” and “66% of public sector planners say their teams lack the capacity to meet demand”.
REPORT: IFS reported on local housing allowance (LHA)
They report “Freezes to local housing allowances reduce the disposable incomes of low-income private renters” and “LHA rates should be regularly and locally uprated”.
REPORT: Centre for Cities reported on the “urban density gap”
They report “if British cities were built at the density of their French or Japanese peers, they would contain at least 2.3 million additional homes across their urban cores” and “The density gap is greatest in Britain’s big cities outside of London”. They recommend government accelerates national planning reform.
REPORT: Radix Big Tent published Homes without Harm
The report “points out that nearly 9 out of the 10 homes we’ll be living in by 2050 have already been built” and “sets out a number of policy shifts required by the government in order to allow the housing sector to address issues with ‘retrofitting’ existing buildings”.
REPORT: HBF reported on the returns from H2B equity loan
The report, based on stats in the latest Homes England annual report, finds that “During 2024/25, profit on repaid Help to Buy loans passed £1bn – a 10% uplift on original loan values” and “Through a combination of positive returns on equity loans and interest income, the government has now received £1.38 billion in profit from the scheme”.
REPORT: UK Finance reported on demand for green home finance
They report “The core challenge is not convincing homeowners that energy efficiency matters, our data shows that they agree, the challenge is normalising borrowing for green improvements to the same degree as borrowing for cars or kitchens”.
REPORT: Fabians reported on ageing at home
They report “there are currently too many barriers to accessing a suitable home, including a lack of suitable new-build options, the cost of improvements, and inadequate support services” and recommend “The forthcoming housing strategy should set out how owner-occupiers can age well in their own home, with a focus on mainstream housing”.
REPORT: JRF reported on energy affordability
They report “The pressure is most acute for those on the lowest incomes, with fuel poverty rates remaining stubbornly high. But high energy costs are also placing pressure on household finances much further up the income distribution, with 15% of households on middle incomes reporting that they are struggling to heat their homes”. They assess five ways to reduce energy bills.
REPORT(PDF): Create Streets reported on mansard roof extensions
They report on “Lessons from Tower Hamlets and Redcliffe Road” on allowing mansard roof extensions.
REPORT: Institute for Government published performance tracker 2025
They report “the government has initiated some reforms in its first year and a bit that should address the root causes of at least some of the performance problems outlined in this report” but “progress has been undermined by poor preparation before the general election and lack of co-ordination across government since”.
REPORT: Clarion reported on “a new social contract for housing”
The report “brings together nine essays from a multidisciplinary panel of thinkers across housing, health, technology, economics and design, each offering bold, hopeful ideas for what the future of social housing could look like”.
BLOG: Bank Underground on household debt and rising rates
They warn the share of households with debt servicing ratios (DSRs) “above 30% increased quite sharply during the last monetary policy hiking cycle starting in 2021” and their “results highlight that if the high DSR share grows too large, it increases the aggregate household vulnerability to interest rate shocks”.
CORPORATE: Crest Nicholson published Trading Statement
They report “FY25 open market sales rate at 0.51 (FY24: 0.48), with the sales rate for the last 13 weeks of the financial year at 0.45” and “We are seeing encouraging improvements in the planning environment with 66% of our strategic land bank now allocated or in draft allocation stage (FY24: 50%)”.
CORPORATE: Grainger published Preliminary Full Year Financial Results
They report “+3.4% like-for-like rental growth in our BTR Portfolio” with “+1.8% on new lets (Mar-25: 3.1%)” and “+4.5% on renewals (Mar-25: 4.9%)”. They also report “Strong occupancy of 98.1% in our BTR portfolio (FY24: 97.4%)”.
Chart of the Week
This week saw the release of both the net additions and affordable housing data for 2024/25 across England. While it may be backwards looking, it does provide us with the most accurate data on the state of housebuilding. The data showed 190,600 new build completions which was broadly in line with the 188,300 predicted by extrapolating the previous year’s data with the quarterly building control data. Combing the net additions data with the affordable housing data also provides us with the best estimate for private housebuilding. The chart below also combines it with Help to Buy equity loan data and historic estimates from JRF on the volume of partial grant S106 affordable housing.
