London’s new homes supply jumped by 17% last year, with 40,568 new homes built in 2018, compared to 34,653 the previous year.
The capital had the highest growth rate of any regions, according to Savills’ latest UK Housing Supply update.
The report uses new energy performance contracts to measure the supply of new homes. It tracked 238,197 EPCs in the year ending December 2018, up by 12% on the previous year.
Savills pointed to an increase in Help to Buy transactions driving new home sales, but noted risks amid a slowdown in sales and house prices in London, alongside consumer caution around Brexit.
London additions made up 17% of the total new homes in the year.
However, the uptick in delivery is still significantly lower than the housing need of 72,407 units, based on the standard calculation of housing need set out in the revised NPPF.
London saw just 56% of the required housing for the year delivered, the lowest proportion of any region.
Delivery also undershot the need in the East (80% delivered), South East (85%) and South West (95%). However, the report shows all other regions were on target.
The largest increases in London were in Islington, up by 1,444 homes, and Greenwich, which saw EPCs increase by 1,051.
Tower Hamlets had the highest total, with 2,936 new homes for the year, up by 27% on 2017. However, the number of homes is still well below the target of 4,873 for the borough.
EG recently revealed that Tower Hamlets also had the largest number of homes approved in 2018, at 10,040 homes, down from 19,898 the previous year.
Mayor John Biggs said: “London has a housing crisis, and we are doing everything we can in Tower Hamlets to tackle the inequality and social deprivation that it can cause.” He emphasised the importance of planning committees and the need for sustainable development.
“We want to ensure that we are permitting and delivering better quality housing in better places, meeting the needs of our current and expanding population, supported by much-needed infrastructure, including community benefits such as schools, health centres, parks, public realm, transport improvements and new and improved open spaces.”
Emily Williams, associate director for residential research at Savills, said: “Completions have increased as developers work through the large pipelines they have accumulated.
“Because of this large construction pipeline, we expect delivery to remain consistent over the next couple of years, despite the market uncertainty caused by Brexit. But to sustain these levels of delivery in the long term, developers are increasingly looking for new routes to market beyond open-market sale, such as purpose-built rental stock and mixed-tenure development.”
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