Each year, the NLA’s London Tall Buildings Survey offers the industry its most reliable barometer of where the capital’s high-rise market stands – and where it is heading. The 2026 edition, published in April and drawing on GLA Planning DataHub data alongside fresh analysis from PriceHubble, is perhaps the most revealing yet. It arrives at a pivotal moment –housing targets have never been higher, the planning landscape continues to shift, and the question of who tall buildings are actually being built for has never been more pressing.
The headline numbers tell a story of moderation rather than retreat. Applications fell 28% year-on-year, from 64 in 2024 to 46 in 2025 – a notable decline, though one that should be read in context. Approvals held at 45, with 87 schemes progressing through the pipeline in various stages. For those who feared the market was stalling, the report offers measured reassurance: activity is lower, but it is not collapsing. Tighter regulation, the ongoing ripple effects of the Building Safety Act, and persistent viability pressures have clearly dampened developer appetite, but the pipeline remains, in the survey’s own assessment, robust.
Geographically, the shift is striking. After years of outer London emerging as fertile ground for tall building activity, 2025 saw a pronounced return to the centre. Inner London accounted for 72% of applications, with Southwark (10), Tower Hamlets (8) and Lambeth (5) leading the boroughs. Southwark’s dominance reflects the continued transformation of Elephant & Castle; Tower Hamlets remains anchored to the ever-evolving Canary Wharf cluster; and Lambeth is the year’s real story in terms of ambition, with proposals around Vauxhall and Nine Elms averaging over 50 storeys and pushing close to 70 – well above London’s overall tall building average of 31 storeys. These are not incremental additions to the skyline. They represent a genuine step-change in scale.
The report’s treatment of housing contribution is where the numbers become truly significant for the wider policy debate. If all residentially-approved tall buildings from 2025 were delivered simultaneously, they would account for roughly 10% of the GLA’s annual target of 88,000 homes. That is a meaningful share – though the survey is candid about the gap between permission and delivery. NLA’s own retrospective analysis found that completions within tall buildings have averaged around 5800 units annually over the decade to 2024, a figure that underlines how much latent capacity sits stalled in the pipeline. The industry voices quoted throughout the report – from JLL, Arup and Multiplex – converge on a familiar theme: viability, construction costs and funding constraints remain the key blockers to unlocking what has already been consented.
The most genuinely new material in this year’s survey comes via PriceHubble’s analysis of who is actually living in these buildings. For the first time, the survey turns its gaze away from the planning register and towards the residents. The findings confirm what many have long suspected: tall building renters are younger (72% under 30 in Inner London), higher earning (median incomes more than 50% above the wider private rented sector) and internationally mobile, with a notably high proportion of overseas movers and students – particularly from China and Hong Kong. They are choosing vertical living deliberately, drawn by amenity, connectivity and proximity to work. Rents command a premium of 29% over the Inner London PRS average, rising to 38% in Outer London.
What this data also quietly reveals is the gap the survey’s authors acknowledge directly – tall buildings, as currently configured, are not yet serving families, lower-income households or those who cannot afford that premium. As London enters a new planning cycle with a draft London Plan due this summer, that question will only grow louder.
Catherine Staniland, Chief Impact Officer, NLA, comments: “Our aim with this study has always been to create a platform for informed discussion, and I’d like to thank all those who have contributed to it, including our NLA Expert Panel on Tall Buildings, who drive our thought-leadership on this topic, identifying key trends and best practice year-round.
“At NLA, we play a central role in shaping the conversation around London’s built environment – bringing together public, private and third sectors to interrogate the data, share perspectives and debate what comes next. Taking this planning pipeline through into delivery is of course the next challenge – and over the coming year, we’ll be working together to understand how we can ease their distinct viability pressures. We will also continue to push the bar on their design, sustainability, access and integration.”
