Manchester delivered more new homes during the past year than London’s 32 boroughs combined, according to a new city council report.
The city completed 4,766 homes during 2025/26, compared with the 4,261 recorded across the London boroughs, councillors were told at a meeting of Manchester’s Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee.
The figures underline the sharp contrast between Manchester’s expanding residential market and the slowdown affecting development in the capital.
A recent JLL analysis found that only 6,325 homes were completed across London during the year to March 2026, equivalent to approximately 7% of the capital’s 88,000-home annual target. Different datasets and reporting methodologies mean that figure is not directly comparable with the council’s analysis, but both point to Manchester substantially outperforming London relative to its size.
AFFORDABLE SUPPLY
Manchester’s latest results also included 901 affordable homes, the highest annual total recorded in the city since the late 1990s. Of these, 439 were delivered for social rent.
Affordable housing starts in Manchester have increased by 12% since 2022/23, bucking the wider slowdown in development.
The city centre recorded 259 affordable housing completions during the latest year – the largest annual total delivered there – as the council seeks to diversify an area historically dominated by private rented apartments.
Manchester’s housing strategy aims to deliver at least 36,000 homes by 2032, including 10,000 council, social and other genuinely affordable properties. Some 3,000 of the affordable homes are planned for the city centre.
The council said 13,555 homes had been delivered since 2022, with more than 7,800 under construction and another 20,000 holding planning permission or progressing through the development pipeline.
Its affordable pipeline comprises approximately 4,000 properties, including 1,450 under construction, 2,000 with planning approval and 690 awaiting a decision.
A total of 264 of the affordable homes completed during 2025/26 had at least three bedrooms, providing additional options for families affected by overcrowding.
BROWNFIELD DELIVERY
Councillor Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: “Building genuinely affordable homes remains incredibly challenging, but we continue to buck the national trend.
“We are seeing more new affordable homes built now than at any point this century, and to have built the homes we have year-on-year is testament to our vision to deliver for our residents.
“We have done housing differently. We aren’t solely reliant on private developers to deliver social and affordable housing.
“We are ramping up delivery by working closely with our housing partners, accessing grant funding and using council-owned brownfield land to deliver the homes we need.”
The council has also returned around 600 empty properties to use since establishing a dedicated Empty Homes Team in 2024.
Its housing register has fallen by approximately 2,000 households over the past six months, the first reduction recorded since the pandemic.
