For the first time more than 40% of all UK multifamily investment has targeted existing assets in the nine months to September, according to JLL Research.
Insight
Standing assets drive multifamily investment in 2025
A record 43% of all transactions so far in 2025 were for standing stock, a sharp rise from a five-year average of 23%.
Year-to-date, investors have committed £722m to standing stock – just £10m shy of the amount transacted in the first nine months of 2022 at the sector’s peak. Deals in Q3 included the largest single asset transaction on record in UK multifamily: Greystar’s £172m acquisition of Barking Wharf from Invesco Real Estate in Q3 2025.
Challenges to viability and delays due to building safety regulations, coupled with a growing amount of stabilised stock being marketed, have led investors to look for opportunities in existing assets.
This has been evident over the last year as more large operational assets have traded and the size of deals has climbed. Bolstered by the Barking Wharf deal, among others, the average single-asset deal in the first nine months of 2025 was £85m – more than 50% above the five-year average.
But multifamily activity has not been limited to existing assets. Despite the difficulties surrounding development, investment in new multifamily stock between January and September has risen 20% against the same period in 2024, totalling £960m across nearly 4,000 new homes.
Major deals included Housing Growth Partnership and JRL Group forming a joint venture in September to deliver a 414-home scheme in Luton, while earlier in the year, Legal & General, PGGM and Nest agreed to forward fund 494 homes at Deansgate Square in Manchester.
While activity has been up relative to last year, on a longer-term basis, multifamily investment continues to be subdued. In total, £1.7bn has been invested in the sector since the start of the year, down a quarter on the five-year average.
The wider BTR landscape
UK BTR – which also includes single family and co-living – had a relatively strong Q3 with volumes totalling £977m (Q3 2024: £589m), bucking the trend of slow summer months in recent years. However, following a quieter second quarter, investment in the first nine months was down 6% on the same period in 2024.
Although single family continues to play a major role in the BTR landscape, making up 45% of investment so far in 2025, the rapid pace of growth seen in recent years has eased. About £1.5bn has transacted this year, down from £1.7bn this time in 2024 but above 2023 (£1.3bn) when single family first started taking off in a significant way.
Despite the decline, there have been 32 deals already this year (2024: 38), at an average price of £44m. Among these were three transactions above £100m, including the largest operational single family deal to date – Placefirst’s £225m purchase of 520 homes from Blackstone and Regis’s Leaf Living portfolio.
Karl Tomusk, Associate, UK Living Research at JLL, said: “It’s impossible to ignore the persistent headwinds in the market, and that was evident in the first half of the year. So, it’s encouraging to see an uptick in Q3, particularly on the multifamily front. Deals on the operational side of the market are underpinning activity, but even forward funding has picked up since 2024.
“Within that context, single family hasn’t grabbed the headlines as it did in 2023 and 2024, but it’s become a reliably active part of UK BTR. And having only really made a splash in the last few years, there is still plenty of room for growth.”