Friday 25 September 2026 5:54 am  |  Updated:  Thursday 24 September 2026 10:20 am

I’m a property developer – here’s why I’m still building in London

By: John Mulryan

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Today’s housing market is hampered by higher interest rates, build cost inflation, weaker sales and headlines about war in the Middle East and Ukraine.

But residential development has always been about managing cycles: with many projects taking more than a decade from conception through planning, construction to handing over the key to new homes.

Property developments starting construction now will not be finished until 2029, by which time the interest rate environment may be very different, home-buying should have picked up and hopefully, the global state of affairs will have stabilised.

Some of the most successful property developments have been commenced at the bottom of the market, with a view to selling into a stronger economy when sentiment is better.

By contrast, many property developers who started on site at the top of the market, hailing a “new paradigm” that said property market cycles had been eliminated have hit trouble when the economy has cooled off.

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