Where to Build

Where to Build is an online mapping tool designed to provide evidence to local and national decision makers and stakeholders about where housing is most needed, and to empower them to make more informed decisions.

Providing geographically detailed results on excess housing demand and how to meet it at national, local authority and neighbourhood level, the tool draws on data from 20 billion housing searches together with a full history of sales and rental listings from 2019–2024.

Go to mapping tool

The mapping tool presents results from a project by Dr Nikhil Datta and Dr Amrita Kulka Solving Britain's Housing Crisis: Where and How to Build 1.5 Million Homes - and will be useful to a wide range of users including, national and local policymakers, industry representatives, housing developers, planners and advocacy groups.

• Where to Build 1.5 million homes: Executive SummaryLink opens in a new window 
• Where to Build 1.5 million homes: Full ReportLink opens in a new window 
• 350 Local Authority Level Reports: — Select a Local Authority — Aberdeen City Aberdeenshire Adur Amber Valley Angus Argyll and Bute Arun Ashfield Ashford Babergh Barking and Dagenham Barnet Barnsley Basildon Basingstoke and Deane Bassetlaw Bath and North East Somerset Bedford Bexley Birmingham Blaby Blackburn with Darwen Blackpool Blaenau Gwent Bolsover Bolton Boston Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Bracknell Forest Bradford Braintree Breckland Brent Brentwood Bridgend Brighton and Hove Bristol, City of Broadland Bromley Bromsgrove Broxbourne Broxtowe Buckinghamshire Burnley Bury Caerphilly Calderdale Cambridge Camden Cannock Chase Canterbury Cardiff Carmarthenshire Castle Point Central Bedfordshire Ceredigion Charnwood Chelmsford Cheltenham Cherwell Cheshire East Cheshire West and Chester Chesterfield Chichester Chorley City of Edinburgh City of London Clackmannanshire Colchester Conwy Cornwall Cotswold County Durham Coventry Crawley Croydon Cumberland Dacorum Darlington Dartford Denbighshire Derby Derbyshire Dales Doncaster Dorset Dover Dudley Dumfries and Galloway Dundee City Ealing East Ayrshire East Cambridgeshire East Devon East Dunbartonshire East Hampshire East Hertfordshire East Lindsey East Lothian East Renfrewshire East Riding of Yorkshire East Staffordshire East Suffolk Eastbourne Eastleigh Elmbridge Enfield Epping Forest Epsom and Ewell Erewash Exeter Falkirk Fareham Fenland Fife Flintshire Folkestone and Hythe Forest of Dean Fylde Gateshead Gedling Glasgow City Gloucester Gosport Gravesham Great Yarmouth Greenwich Guildford Gwynedd Hackney Halton Hammersmith and Fulham Harborough Haringey Harlow Harrow Hart Hartlepool Hastings Havant Havering Herefordshire, County of Hertsmere High Peak Highland Hillingdon Hinckley and Bosworth Horsham Hounslow Huntingdonshire Hyndburn Inverclyde Ipswich Isle of Anglesey Isle of Wight Isles of Scilly Islington Kensington and Chelsea King's Lynn and West Norfolk Kingston upon Hull, City of Kingston upon Thames Kirklees Knowsley Lambeth Lancaster Leeds Leicester Lewes Lewisham Lichfield Lincoln Liverpool Luton Maidstone Maldon Malvern Hills Manchester Mansfield Medway Melton Merthyr Tydfil Merton Mid Devon Mid Suffolk Mid Sussex Middlesbrough Midlothian Milton Keynes Mole Valley Monmouthshire Moray Na h-Eileanan Siar Neath Port Talbot New Forest Newark and Sherwood Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle-under-Lyme Newham Newport North Ayrshire North Devon North East Derbyshire North East Lincolnshire North Hertfordshire North Kesteven North Lanarkshire North Lincolnshire North Norfolk North Northamptonshire North Somerset North Tyneside North Warwickshire North West Leicestershire North Yorkshire Northumberland Norwich Nottingham Nuneaton and Bedworth Oadby and Wigston Oldham Orkney Islands Oxford Pembrokeshire Pendle Perth and Kinross Peterborough Plymouth Portsmouth Powys Preston Reading Redbridge Redcar and Cleveland Redditch Reigate and Banstead Renfrewshire Rhondda Cynon Taf Ribble Valley Richmond upon Thames Rochdale Rochford Rossendale Rother Rotherham Rugby Runnymede Rushcliffe Rushmoor Rutland Salford Sandwell Scottish Borders Sefton Sevenoaks Sheffield Shetland Islands Shropshire Slough Solihull Somerset South Ayrshire South Cambridgeshire South Derbyshire South Gloucestershire South Hams South Holland South Kesteven South Lanarkshire South Norfolk South Oxfordshire South Ribble South Staffordshire South Tyneside Southampton Southend-on-Sea Southwark Spelthorne St Albans St. Helens Stafford Staffordshire Moorlands Stevenage Stirling Stockport Stockton-on-Tees Stoke-on-Trent Stratford-on-Avon Stroud Sunderland Surrey Heath Sutton Swale Swansea Swindon Tameside Tamworth Tandridge Teignbridge Telford and Wrekin Tendring Test Valley Tewkesbury Thanet Three Rivers Thurrock Tonbridge and Malling Torbay Torfaen Torridge Tower Hamlets Trafford Tunbridge Wells Uttlesford Vale of Glamorgan Vale of White Horse Wakefield Walsall Waltham Forest Wandsworth Warrington Warwick Watford Waverley Wealden Welwyn Hatfield West Berkshire West Devon West Dunbartonshire West Lancashire West Lindsey West Lothian West Northamptonshire West Oxfordshire West Suffolk Westminster Westmorland and Furness Wigan Wiltshire Winchester Windsor and Maidenhead Wirral Woking Wokingham Wolverhampton Worcester Worthing Wrexham Wychavon Wyre Wyre Forest York Open PDF

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How to use the Where to Build mapping tool

Use the map’s search bar or drop-down menu – or scroll to any location of your interest. You can toggle between local authority and output area level data on the left-hand side. Clicking on any area brings up additional information in the right-hand side panel. Clicking "About these attributes" below the text opens further explanations and definitions for the attributes shown. You can also toggle on or off additional layers (build classifications that we have developed and planning designations).

We define two new measures of housing demand:

1. Housing gap: the difference between the number of people searching for homes and the number of available properties in an area. It reflects how many home-seekers are affected by a shortage.
2. Housing tightness: The ratio of demand to supply. It reflects how intensely affected home-seekers compete for each available property.

Link opens in a new window

If you're a policymaker or industry representative interested in learning more or arranging a free webinar on how you might use this tool, please contact amrita.kulka@warwick.ac.uk and nikhil.datta@warwick.ac.uk