GLOPRAGlobal Property Radar

UK construction orders rise 16.2% in 2025 as new housing slips

UK construction new orders rose 16.2% in 2025 to £83,335 million, but private new housing was the only segment to shrink, tightening future new-build supply.

The facts

  • New orders for construction work in Great Britain totalled £83,335 million in 2025, +16.2% more than in 2024.
  • Private new housing was the only new-orders segment to fall. The Office for National Statistics names it as the single declining category and does not quantify the drop.
  • The value of construction new work reached £139,106 million, up 1.9%, with public work up 1.7% (£636 million) and private work up 1.9% (£1,915 million).
  • The construction output price index for all work stood 2.2% higher in December 2025 than a year earlier.
  • 376,518 construction firms were registered for VAT or PAYE in the third quarter of 2025, 1.6% more than in 2024.
  • Construction employed 1.5 million people excluding the self-employed in the third quarter of 2025, 1.9% more than a year earlier.

What it means for your money

  • Total construction orders jumped 16.2%, but private new housing was the only part to shrink. More builders, fewer new homes.
  • Glopra's own UK data puts the average home at 361,632 USD, or 3,767 USD per square metre, and annual price growth at 1.4%. That is the level a buyer enters at today, before any change in the order book feeds through to completions.
  • For someone who already owns a UK home, a thinner new-build pipeline is the supply side of resale value in the years ahead. The release does not price that, and carries no house-price figure at all.
  • Building work is not getting cheaper: output prices for all construction work were 2.2% higher in December 2025 than a year before, which sits in the cost base of anything built or refurbished from here.

What to watch

  • The release does not quantify the fall in private new housing orders. It only names it as the single declining segment, so the size of the pipeline shift is unknown.
  • The figures cover Great Britain, so Northern Ireland is excluded, and the latest reference year is 2025, not 2026.
  • The construction output price index reading is dated December 2025. The release gives no 2026 price figure.

Sources: Office for National Statistics https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/constructionindustry/articles/constructionstatistics/2025

Market data: Edinburgh · United Kingdom · Manchester · London