Record-breaking levels of migration since 2020 have added more than £15,000 to the price of the average English home.
‘The UK’s Housing Crisis is Getting Worse’ by CPS Head of Housing and Infrastructure Ben Hopkinson finds that had net migration been kept to the tens of thousands since 2020, the average English house price would be roughly £15,270 – or 5.2% – lower today, at £275,650 rather than £290,920. With zero net migration over the same period, the estimated fall is larger still, at £19,370 or 6.7%. The report suggests this surge in migration-driven demand may be the missing piece explaining why high interest rates have not had the impact on house prices that many forecasters expected.
Between 2021 and 2025 more than 1.1 million homes were built but the ratio of homes per 1,000 people in England actually fell from 441 to 439 over the same period due to record migration. England has among the fewest homes per head in Europe. That 439 was well below the Western European average of 545 and London had even fewer, with just 422.
However, the report makes clear that migration-driven demand is not the sole reason behind our current housing crisis. The intransigent planning system continues to prevent house building at the same time as demand continues to build up.
Using new 2025 data, the report shows the gap between the UK and the average Western European country has widened from 6.5 million homes to 6.9 million since 2023, with England accounting for 6.2 million of that shortfall. While the typical Western European country has increased its homes per 1,000 residents over the last two years, the UK has gone into reverse – leaving it with the second-lowest rate of any major Western European country, at 445 against an average of 545. England stands at just 439, and London lowest of all at 422.
While migration has contributed significantly to our housing crisis, chronic under-building remains the root cause. Since 1982, France has grown its housing stock by an average of 1.07% a year against England’s 0.82%, with England exceeding the French average in only two years, 1987 and 1988.
England has built an average of just 178,000 homes a year over that period – barely half the Government’s 300,000 target, which ministers have effectively conceded they will miss, with Angela Rayner recently relabelling the manifesto commitment a ‘stretch target’. Had England simply matched France’s building rate since the early 1980s, it would have built 2.9 million more homes and cut its shortage in half.
Ben Hopkinson is the Head of Housing and Infrastructure at the Centre for Policy Studies. He was previously the Head of Research at Britain Remade, a pro-economic growth campaign group, and a Senior Risk Consultant at PwC. He holds an MSc in International Relations from the London School of Economics and a BA in Philosophy,… View Article
