Manchester built more new homes last year than the whole of Greater London’s 32 boroughs put together, according to a report presented to the Council’s Communities and Equalities Scrutiny Committee on Wednesday.
The city completed 4,766 homes in 2025/26, compared to 4,261 across Greater London. It marks another record year in Manchester’s housing strategy, which runs to 2032, and included the highest number of affordable homes built since the late 1990s – 901 in total, with 439 for social rent.
The city centre also saw its largest-ever delivery of affordable homes, with 259 completions helping widen housing choice in an area traditionally dominated by private rented flats.
The council say they remain on track to meet its target of 36,000 homes of all tenures by 2032, including 10,000 social, council and genuinely affordable homes. So far, 13,555 homes have been delivered since 2022, with over 7,800 under construction and another 20,000 in the pipeline or awaiting approval.
Larger family homes were also a focus, with 264 of the affordable completions having three or more bedrooms, aimed at easing overcrowding.
The report describes how the new renters’ rights legislation has reshaped the market, with some landlords leaving the rental sector. Two-thirds of their properties have been bought by owner-occupiers, adding an estimated 1,450 new homeowners in the city over the past year.
Half of this year’s affordable homes were low or zero carbon, with the council now aiming for 75% by 2032.
Alongside new building, Manchester has been working to make better use of existing housing stock. Since 2024, around 600 long-term empty homes have been brought back into use. A £2,500 incentive scheme has also helped 195 residents in larger social homes ‘right size’ into smaller properties, freeing up family homes elsewhere.
These figures have contributed to the housing register falling by 2,000 households in the past six months – the first such drop since the pandemic. Manchester was also the only UK Core City to cut use of temporary accommodation since 2022, nearly eliminating bed-and-breakfast placements for families.
Cllr Gavin White, Manchester City Council’s executive member for housing and regeneration, said: ‘We set out to be ambitious with how we are delivering new housing for our residents because we know how important a decent, secure and safe home is for the success of Manchester people.
‘Building genuinely affordable homes remains incredibly challenging but we continue to buck the national trend and 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, by accessing grant funding and using Council-owned brownfield land to deliver the homes we need. And the results speak for themselves.’
The full Housing Strategy can be read here.
Photo: Collyhurst Social Housing Victoria North
Leave a Reply