Property News · August 24, 2025

The Guardian view on build-to-rent: hardly a solution to the housing crisis | Editorial


Labour is hoping that big investors will build more homes. But there’s no guarantee they will be genuinely affordableTo an outside eye, English cities might seem deliberately designed to foment a housing crisis. Unconstrained by craggy topography or fortified ramparts, their Victorian developers built endless streets of low-rise terraces. Cities that expanded during the Industrial Revolution are less dense than their European equivalents and have far fewer flats. Their private rental sectors are fragmented, dominated by small-time landlords for whom property ownership is often a second career.In recent years, large investors have begun bankrolling high-rise apartment blocks that promise to create the type of housing that English cities need. These “build-to-rent” developments are transforming the skylines of Manchester and London, and have added about 14,000 new homes each year since 2020. For a Labour government that hopes to build 1.5m homes, the sector’s growth looks like a blessing. Clive Betts, the Labour MP who chairs a build-to-rent taskforce, has described such developments as “good-quality housing with a real future”. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
Read more…The Guardian view on build-to-rent: hardly a solution to the housing crisis | Editorial

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