Latest UK housing starts and completions figures

ONS publishes quarterly data on housing starts and completions carried out by private enterprises, housing associations and local authorities across the UK.

Data is collected from a range of sources, including local authority new build form returns, National House Building Council (NHBC) data, approved inspector data returns, Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme and District Council Building Control in Northern Ireland.

As the usage notes for the dataset outline, it provides a timely indicator of new supply, but fuller measures of housing provision come from the separate annual net additions series⁽¹⁾, which also includes conversions, demolitions and changes of use.

UK housing starts flat year-on-year, completions fall to lowest level since 2014

New housing starts in the UK were down by 3.4% in 3Q2025 compared with the previous quarter but increased by 0.1% on the same period in 2024, according to the latest provisional data from ONS⁽²⁾. Compared with pre-pandemic 3Q2019, the 37,500 starts were down by 30.2%.

On the completions side, 37,350 new dwellings were completed in the UK in 3Q2025 – the lowest quarterly total recorded since 3Q2014.

This was 16.1% less completions than in 2Q2025 and 10.0% fewer than in the same period one year earlier. Compared with 3Q2019, completions were down by 27.3%.

^{Source: ONS – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Table 1a}

Karl Horton, data services director at BCIS, said: ‘Looking at long-term trends in the data, both starts and completions are down compared with pre-pandemic levels. After an encouraging uplift in starts in the previous quarter, numbers quickly fell again while completions hit their lowest level in over a decade.

‘Together, the data reaffirm familiar viability constraints for housebuilders, including delays in Building Safety Regulator decision-making and the impact of affordability on demand. The ship has long sailed on the government’s 1.5 million news homes target. However, there’s still time for it to salvage its housing strategy and help stimulate better market conditions.’

England accounted for 83.8% of all UK starts in the third quarter of 2025, of which almost three-quarters (74.1%) were by private enterprises. The number of private enterprise starts in England in 3Q2025 (23,270) fell by 0.6% on the previous quarter but were up by 8.5% on the year.

There were just 190 starts by local authorities and 7,960 by housing associations.

Across the rest of the UK, only Wales saw increased starts on a quarterly and annual basis.

Conversely, housing starts in Scotland were down on both counts, while starts in Northern Ireland decreased on the quarter but rose on the year.

^{Source: ONS – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Tables 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

^{Source : ONS – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Tables 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

Elsewhere, England accounted for 82.7% of all completions in the UK in 3Q2025 with 30,880, the lowest level since 2Q2020.

Private enterprises were responsible for 75.0% of England completions with 23,170. Housing associations accounted for 7,350 completions, or just under one in four, while local authorities were responsible for 1.6%.

^{Source: ONS – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Tables 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

Private enterprises carried out the lion’s share of completions across the rest of the UK, ranging from 75.2% in Wales to 90.6% in Northern Ireland.

^{Source: ONS – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Tables 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

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^{(1) GOV.UK – Housing supply: net additional dwellings, England: 2024 to 2025 – here}

^{(2) Office for National Statistics – Indicators of house building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country – here}