CBRE’s Multifamily Index Reports High Occupancy As Sector Recovers

Global real estate advisor, CBRE, has released its UK Multifamily Index, with its findings showing that both rental and capital values have gradually risen over a six-month period, in a sign of recovery for the sector.

A 1% increase in capital values was recorded for the six months to September 2025 and this contributed to a total return of 3.2% over this period, with income return contributing 2.2% to performance.

The rise in capital values was primarily driven by rental value growth of 1.1%, while capitalisation rates (investment yields) showed little movement, increasing by just one basis point since March. Gross income rose by 3.3% over the last six months. This was supported by an increase in occupancy during this period. The overall occupancy rate for schemes in the index was 97% at September 2025.

Multifamily assets located in London exhibited similar performance over the last six months to those in the rest of the UK. Capital values rose by 1% in both cases, while gross income growth for the rest of the UK was slightly stronger, at 3.4% compared with 3.1% for London.

James Hinde, Senior Director, Living Sector Valuations Team, CBRE commented:

"These results demonstrate the continued resilience of the UK multifamily sector. While investment activity remains subdued due to wider viability challenges and uncertainty around the upcoming Autumn Budget, investment volumes are 14% higher as at Q3 2025 compared to the same time last year."

"In addition, the investment pipeline looks healthy with over £3.0bn worth of opportunities currently under offer, the highest it's been for some time."

Steven Devaney, Senior Director, UK Research, CBRE commented:

"Our latest index marks the first moment that CBRE has reported on total returns and net income returns for UK multifamily schemes. This expansion to our index enables investors to see the contribution of income to investment performance in the sector."

"It is also promising to see renewed growth in capital values over the last twelve months, which should prompt cautious optimism from investors as the multifamily sector recovers."