In the summer of 2023, developer and operator Get Living secured planning permission for an additional 848 build-to-rent (BTR) homes at East Village, the neighbourhood created on the site of the former London 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village in Stratford, east London.

Three years on, construction is yet to start on the site.

While Get Living has been able to take forward some BTR development, including a 485-home scheme at the Elephant & Castle regeneration project in south London, its development in Stratford has stalled due to a combination of rising construction and financing costs and new building safety rules.

Get Living is far from alone in having to delay construction. A Q1 2026 market update from Savills published in April reveals that the number of BTR homes under construction across the UK’s 12 core cities has fallen by 11% year on year. Savills warns that this trend is likely to continue, with deals taking longer to progress given the “headwinds from planning, building safety and construction cost inflation”.

The challenges facing the rental sector and how to overcome them will be among the themes discussed at Property Week’s Rental Living Summit in Manchester on 16 July. The day will bring together experts from across the BTR, co-living and single-family rental (SFR) sectors.

Demand for build to rent continues to significantly outstrip supply
Justine Edmonds, LRG

Justine Edmonds, director of BTR at property services company Leaders Romans Group (LRG) and a speaker at this year’s summit, says there is no escaping the fact that the development approval process remains longer and more resource-intensive than it has been in the past.

Under the latest building safety rules, higher-risk residential developments are required to gain approval from the Building Safety Regulator (BSR); and from September, all new buildings above 18m will be required to have second staircases.

“Developers are factoring these [safety] requirements into project appraisals from the outset, but the impact on viability, delivery timelines and overall housing supply continues to be felt across the sector,” Edmonds says.

Fellow summit speaker Celia Harrison, an investment director at BTR specialist Bridges Fund Management, says the new safety rules have had implications for the purchase of existing rental developments, too. She says investors and operators are still deliberating on what they are comfortable with when it comes to buying buildings that don’t have second staircases.

Encouraging signs

On the development side, the picture is more encouraging, with the BSR finally hitting its targets for processing gateway 2 applications for taller-tower residential schemes.

“The pace of the gateway process has been improving, and contractors and consultants now have a far better grasp of the requirements,” says Harrison. “That’s helping investors become more comfortable underwriting higher-risk buildings under the new regulatory framework.”

Thankfully, the challenges faced across the rental sector have not deterred investment. Data from Cushman & Wakefield shows £5.2bn was invested in the UK BTR sector last year – the highest amount on record.

Edmonds says investor appetite remains particularly strong for high-quality assets in locations with good employment growth and an undersupply of housing.

“Demand continues to significantly outstrip supply, driven by affordability challenges in the owner-occupier market, changing lifestyle preferences and growing acceptance of professionally managed rental housing,” she says.

The strongest-performing areas continue to be professionally managed multi-family BTR and SFR, Edmonds says, particularly in locations where house prices are high. At the same time, co-living developments have become popular in urban locations as developers can generally build more units on a site, and therefore generate better returns, compared with traditional multi-family BTR.

“It [co-living] addresses affordability challenges while providing strong amenity offerings and community-focused living environments,” says Edmonds.

Harrison adds: “Co-living is now seen as a strong choice for investors, alongside – or even as an alternative to – multi-family BTR.”

An Investec study published in April reveals that 40% of investors expect to increase their co-living allocation over the next 12 months.

Location, price and product bring people through the door, but service is what makes them stay
Lesley Roberts, Related Argent

Harrison believes investors and developers that can get schemes out of the ground in the next couple of years will be delivering buildings into a supply-constrained market by the time they are completed. “That’s a strong position to be in,” she says.

However, she adds that they need to remain cautious because while rental growth has been strong, it has not always been sufficient to offset rising development costs. “This challenge is particularly acute in secondary locations where rents may not have increased at the same pace as build costs,” says Harrison.

Success also increasingly depends on local fundamentals such as employment growth, population trends, transport connectivity and housing supply constraints.

“Regional cities with strong economic growth continue to attract substantial institutional capital, while weaker locations face greater viability challenges,” Edmonds adds.

Market fundamentals

Savills’ data points to a strong start to the year for BTR investment, which hit £795m in Q1 2026 – the highest first quarter of investment since 2022. Activity has been driven primarily by investors acquiring operational stock, which has accounted for 68% of investment. Over three fifths of this stock was in London, according to the agency.

“Overall, the market remains fundamentally strong, but there is a growing focus on operational efficiency, product differentiation and careful site selection to ensure schemes remain financially viable,” Edmonds says.

Summit speaker Michelle Swain, senior director of operations at Get Living, says the introduction of the Renters’ Rights Act, which came into effect in May, will potentially help BTR landlords and operators. The legislation ends fixed-term tenancies and allows tenants to give two months’ notice when they want to leave a property. Ultimately, this places a greater emphasis on landlords delivering a higher-quality service or risk losing tenants.

Swain says it leaves little room for complacency for BTR operators. “It’s about operating smart and efficiently, and having good people running your buildings,” she says. “Residents feel they are getting value for money. In the current price-sensitive sector, that’s what’s making the difference.”

Related Argent director of BTR operations Lesley Roberts, who is also due to speak at the summit, agrees that customer service is increasing in importance.

“Location, price and product may be what brings people through the door, but service is what makes them stay – and that retention is a critical part of the BTR model,” she says.

Swain adds that staff play an increasingly important role. “It doesn’t matter how shiny your building is; if you do not have the right people managing that building for the resident experience, you don’t really have anything,” she says.

It’s a factor prompting Get Living to consider bringing its estate management in-house as it looks to tighten up its operations and increase efficiency.

From an investment perspective, BTR’s fundamentals remain compelling: there is still a structural undersupply of high-quality rental homes and institutional investors continue to be drawn to the sector’s long-term earning potential.

Demand from residents is also still strong, particularly in well-connected locations with lots of amenities locally.

“For me, the future of BTR is about delivering homes that are professionally managed and genuinely easy to live in,” Roberts says. “That is what creates long-term value for residents and investors alike.”

Rental Living Summit

Now in its second year, Property Week’s Rental Living Summit will take place at the Science and Industry Museum in Manchester on 16 July.

The event will bring together more than 250 property professionals and explore insights into key rental housing sectors, including build to rent, co-living and single-family rental.

Themes to be covered at the event include the current state of the rental market, emerging trends in the sector and the challenges facing developers. There will also be a series of masterclasses throughout the day led by sector experts. In addition, a series of site visits will take place on 15 July.

Speakers this year include Adam Daniels, chief executive of Vistry Group; Grace Oyesoro, director of operations at Quintain Living; and Thomasin Renshaw, managing director for UK development at Greystar.

Click here for more information about the Rental Living Summit