Our analysis shows that while headline sales rates among the largest housebuilders have stabilised, smaller builders have seen little or no recovery in recent years. For firms delivering between 500 and 1,000 homes per year, average sales per outlet have fallen by more than 40% since 2021, creating serious pressure for many SME businesses.

At the same time, there is a widening gap between households who want to buy a home and those who can realistically do so. Deposit requirements remain the biggest barrier to homeownership, leaving many families in the private rented sector unable to access the housing ladder despite being able to sustain mortgage payments.

A renewed equity loan scheme could support up to 85,000 additional homes by 2029, while also generating almost £24bn in additional GDP over three years.

Chris Buckle, director of residential research at Savills, says: "Housebuilder sales rates have shown little sign of recovery since our last report for the LPDF in October 2025 and, with no form of demand side support for new homes forthcoming in the Autumn Budget, housebuilders are continuing to use financial incentives to plug gaps in demand. The use of these incentives is likely to be dominated by the larger housebuilders who have the financial capacity to absorb the cost while maintaining volumes, whereas the smaller builders will have less capacity to do this.

“Without a boost to demand in the very near future, the industry capacity will be lost that supported 150,000 new homes sales and 220,000 total completions between 2019 and 2022. However, a renewed equity loan scheme could support up to 85,000 completions by March 2029, assuming it commenced in the Spring of 2026.”

You can read the full report here.