Latest NHBC figures show new home registrations in the capital surged 170% in the second quarter, climbing from just 896 homes a year ago to 2,417.

While the rebound comes from an exceptionally low base, it suggests the easing of Building Safety Regulator Gateway 2 approval bottlenecks is finally beginning to feed through into construction starts.

The recovery remains tentative. Quarterly registrations are still well below the roughly 6,000 homes typically recorded in London before the pandemic, underlining how far the market has yet to recover.

Nationally, developers registered 29,162 new homes for construction in Q2, down 4% from 30,259 a year earlier.

Private sector registrations fell 5% to 19,045 as elevated interest rates, higher construction costs and weak buyer affordability continued to weigh on build programmes. Affordable and build to rent registrations were broadly unchanged at 10,117 homes.

London recorded by far the strongest regional performance, while the North West (+37%), East of England (+15%), South East (+12%), West Midlands (+7%) and Scotland (+6%) also posted gains. The sharpest declines came in the South West (-42%), East Midlands (-36%) and Wales (-34%).

Daniel Pearce, chief strategy officer at NHBC, said: “Elevated interest rates, geopolitical volatility and rising costs combined with affordability pressures impacting consumer demand, meant that many house builders slowed their build programmes in the second quarter.”

He welcomed the Government’s commitment to expand council house building but said planning reform, reduced regulatory burdens and measures to improve affordability would all be needed to increase housing supply.

Pearce also cautioned against reading too much into a single quarter’s London figures, noting that registrations in the capital are inherently volatile because large high density schemes are often registered in batches.

He said the next two quarters would show whether the uplift marks the start of a sustained recovery or simply reflects the timing of major developments.