The Home Improvement Index 2024
Regional Profiles: London
Kensington & Chelsea tops the national rankings seeing significant growth in home improvement applications in 2023. This could be seen as symbolic of a shift in influence from the income to the wealth among households. It could also be an early sign of home improvement activity shifting back to London’s inner boroughs, as it was a decade ago when activity was booming.
London - Change in applications by type 2022 & 2023
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
London has a distinctively different market than elsewhere, not least because the flow of overseas money greatly influences house prices. Overall London saw the smallest fall in applications in 2023. This is partly because it saw the smallest rise in the wake of the pandemic – applications jumped 16% between 2019 and 2021 compared with 26% across Britain. Compared with 2019, applications in 2023 were down 10%, more than the national average.
London - Regional Home improvement apps per 1k private homes
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
Looking at types of applications in 2023, the big-ticket projects such as extensions and loft works were down both on the year and compared with 2019. But garden works and buildings were strong, with a big lift in applications since 2019. There was also a continued rise in applications for home offices. On energy saving measures, applications mentioning insulation were up more than the national average while applications mentioning solar panels were up but less than the national average, although from a relatively high base.
London - Average House price at Dec 2023 & annual change
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
London - Top 10 districts for home improvement
Loading..........
The Data is Not Available
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
*The rankings are based on the number of home improvement applications, as defined by Barbour ABI (see methodology), per 1,000 private homes. Given the impacts of the pandemic, 2023 is compared with 2019 as benchmark.
London - Share of regional applications involving key types in 2023
Loading..........
The Data is Not Available
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
*Note: A single application may include any number of the above key types
London - Regional spending on alterations and improvement to homes over 2021 and 2022
Loading..........
The Data is Not Available
Want to see the full data behind this chart?
Source: ONS Family Expenditure Survey.
Caveat: The data can vary significantly year to year given sample the sizes. This is partially smoothed in our use of the data by taking an average over two years.
