New build lettings London
Short answer: a new-build flat is not a second-hand flat with newer paint. The operational, commercial and statutory considerations are different in kind, not just degree, and a landlord who applies generic letting advice to a new-build portfolio will reliably either leave money on the table or pick up problems an experienced new-build agent would have avoided at the handover stage. This post sets out the four areas where new-build lettings genuinely diverge — pricing, operations, block-level coordination, and the post-RRA statutory hooks — and is the anchor for a six-post series that goes deeper on each.
Why new-build is a specialism, not a marketing line
A lot of London letting agents claim to be "new-build specialists" in the same breath they claim to be specialists in everything else. The reality is that the operational stack for a new-build letting is materially different from the stack for an established flat, and most generic agents have neither the procedural muscle memory nor the data to handle it well.
There are four areas where the difference matters. Get any one of them wrong and you compound the cost across an entire portfolio.
1. Pricing without comparables
For an established two-bedroom flat in Maida Vale you can pull fifteen comparable listings within a 500-metre radius going back two years. The market has priced that flat already; the agent's job is to read the comparables, adjust for condition and floor, and pick a number that reflects what the market is willing to pay.
A first-let of unit 24 in a 90-unit Battersea Power Station completion gives you, at best, a handful of price points from the same building, all set in the same week by the developer, all on units that are not yet let. There are no second-hand comparables to anchor against. There is no track record of how this building actually performs once tenants are in place. The valuation methodology that works for established stock — the comparable rental method described in the Lettings Valuation Guide §1.3 — does not have the data feedstock it needs for the new-build first let.
Add the post-Renters' Rights Act 2025 regime on top. The bidding ban (RRA s.56) makes "list high and let the market push it up" structurally impossible. The rent in advance ban (RRA s.8) closes the workaround of letting to a rent-in-advance international applicant at a premium. The Section 13 rent review process means whatever number lands on day one is the number that compounds for the life of the tenancy.
The day-one number has to be right the first time. There is no recovery mechanism. We unpack the new-build first-let pricing methodology in detail in Pricing a new-build first let when comparables are thin.
2. Developer handover and snagging coordination
A new-build is handed over by the developer in a moveable but not always perfect state. There will be defects. Some are visible at the snagging walkthrough — a misaligned door, a chip on the worktop, a tile in the wrong shade. Some are not visible for months — the en-suite that leaks into the kitchen below the first time the upstairs neighbour runs a bath.
The work split between the developer's snagging team and the managing agent's maintenance scope is not the same work split that applies on a second-hand flat. On an established property, anything that breaks is the landlord's problem (subject to the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 repairing obligation) and the managing agent's procurement scope. On a new-build, certain defects fall under the developer's snagging warranty (typically a two-year period from practical completion under the NHBC scheme or an equivalent provider) and have to be routed back to the developer rather than fixed via the agent's contractor network.
Routing those defects through the wrong channel is a common new-build error. Fix it through the agent's contractor and the landlord pays out of pocket for something the developer was obligated to remediate at no cost. Wait for the developer's snagging team and the tenant is left in a flat with a leaking en-suite for six weeks. Both are bad outcomes; both are avoidable if the boundary is mapped at handover and held to throughout the warranty period.
We coordinate the snagging walkthrough with the landlord, the developer's site manager, and our own inventory clerk. Every defect gets photographed, logged against the NHBC defect period, and routed correctly. Our New Build Handover & Key Collection service is itemised at £95 (Essential Terms §44). The wider snagging-versus-maintenance boundary is the subject of The line between developer snagging and agent maintenance.
3. Communal heating, prepayment meters, and the Bills Included problem
Most modern central-London new-build blocks run on communal heat networks — heat-only or heat-and-cooling — rather than individual gas boilers. Most have prepayment meters for electricity (and often hot water, heating, or both) rather than pay-on-bill arrangements. Many have smart-home installations, fibre-to-the-flat, and concierge-managed parcel rooms. The communal heating tariff structure is different from a standard utility bill. The prepayment top-up routes are different. The handover of meter readings between outgoing and incoming tenant is different.
For the agent this matters for two reasons. First, the Essential Terms §64 utility bill responsibilities are split differently when communal systems are involved. Some bills cannot be transferred out of the landlord's name and have to be settled by the landlord and recovered from the tenant separately. Second, the Goodlord Bills Included product (Essential Terms §11.5 and §65) bundles broadband, energy, water and council tax into a single inclusive rent — which is a different commercial proposition in a building where the energy supply isn't a conventional dual-fuel account in the first place.
The default new-build lettings approach — "let it like any other flat, point the tenant at British Gas, move on" — quietly produces months of billing-issue friction that the landlord ends up paying for at £18 per hour of agent admin time (Essential Terms §64.1). Doing it right means front-loading the utility setup, capturing the meter handover state in the inventory, and pre-briefing the tenant on what is and isn't conventional about the building's energy supply.
The utility-management mechanics — what to set up, what to delegate to Goodlord Bills Included, what the landlord retains responsibility for — are unpacked in How utility management works on a London new-build.
4. Block-level coordination — managing agent, concierge, lift access
A new-build flat sits inside a block, and the block is run by a managing agent appointed under the head lease. That managing agent controls communal areas, parcel rooms, residents' apps, concierge arrangements, contractor access, and the day-to-day operation of every shared service. The relationship between the lettings agent and the block managing agent is one of the silent variables that determines whether a new-build letting runs smoothly.
A few examples of where this matters. Contractor access: most new-build blocks require any contractor on site to be pre-registered with the concierge and to provide proof of liability insurance before keys are released. An agent without an existing relationship with the block managing agent will lose two to three days on every routine repair while access permissions are negotiated from cold. Water ingress from the flat above: this is the most common cross-demise issue in new-build blocks and almost always requires coordinated access to two units plus the riser cupboard in the common parts. The block managing agent controls the riser. Section 20 consultation notices: new-build leaseholders receive Section 20 notices for any qualifying major works to the building. We flag them when they arrive and surface them in managed-portfolio reporting; an agent who doesn't read the building's correspondence ends up with a surprised landlord and an unbudgeted invoice.
We maintain working relationships with the block managing agents across every development where we have managed units. That is institutional memory that does not transfer with a single instruction.
5. The post-RRA statutory hooks that apply specifically on new-builds
The Renters' Rights Act 2025 reshaped every assured tenancy in England, but several of its provisions land differently on new-build first-lets than they do on continuing tenancies in established stock.
PRS Database registration (RRA s.92, going live late 2026). Every dwelling in scope must be registered before it can be marketed or let. For a new-build first-let this is the first registration the property has ever had. It cannot be inherited from a previous let. We manage the registration via Lettspay (Essential Terms §11.6) for managed clients.
The 31 May 2026 information sheet requirement. This applies to landlords of existing tenants only — i.e. tenancies in place before 1 May 2026. A unit being first-let after that date is outside the scope of the one-off information-sheet requirement, but the equivalent prescribed-information disclosure (the standard tenancy start-up documentation) applies at the start of every new tenancy.
Section 13 rent review and Form 4A. Identical mechanics on new-build and established stock. The mechanics matter most in the second year of a tenancy where the marketing price set on day one needs to be reviewed against what the building's actual let-up performance has shown.
Awaab's Law (from 2027). The new statutory hazard-response framework applies to all private rented properties. New-build defects that present as Category 1 or Category 2 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System will fall under the Awaab's Law response-deadline regime. The interaction between the developer's snagging warranty and Awaab's Law is a live operational question for any letting agent managing new-build stock from 2027.
Where to look next
This post is the anchor for a six-post series. The five follow-up posts go deeper on the operational areas that produce the most landlord-facing friction:
- How utility management works on a London new-build — communal heating, prepayment meters, Goodlord Bills Included, change-of-occupancy mechanics.
- The line between developer snagging and agent maintenance — what falls under the developer warranty, what falls under the agent's procurement scope, and how to keep the two from getting tangled.
- Pricing a new-build first let when comparables are thin — the valuation methodology that works when there are no second-hand price points to anchor against.
- New-build deposit claim clauses — the tenancy clauses (8.7-8.10) and the wider luxury-compliance stack (HIU/MVHR servicing, fire-door inspections, specialist contractor network) that protect a landlord at deposit adjudication.
- What annual new-build servicing actually costs — a worked example for MVHR plus A/C plus F-Gas leak-check certification on a typical central-London luxury flat.
For the wider operational positioning, see our New-Build Specialists page. For the post-Renters' Rights Act 2025 day-one-pricing thesis that runs underneath every analysis on this site, see the RRA day-one pricing decision and Why we won't take the wrong price. For the operational fee structure that covers our handover, snagging coordination and ongoing management work, see Landlords — how our 10% fee works.
Sources
- Lettings Valuation Guide v2.0 — §1.3 (Comparable Rental Method), §5.2 (What makes a home rent quickly), line 30 (new-build specialism).
- Essential Terms and Charges v2.1.5 — §11.5 [AGENCY-010] Goodlord platform; §11.6 [FEES-004-A] Lettspay; §22 [RENT-001] marketing price; §44 (New Build Handover & Key Collection); §47 [REPAIR-001] procurement; §64 [UTIL-002] utility bills, communal heating, prepayment meters; §65 [UTIL-003] Bills Included; §80 [COMPLY-001] statutory checks.
- Renters' Rights Act 2025 — ss.1 (assured periodic tenancies), 8 (rent-in-advance ban), 56 (bidding ban), 92 (PRS Database).
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 — repairing obligation under s.11.
- Housing Act 2004 — Housing Health and Safety Rating System; Awaab's Law amendments under the Renters' Rights Act 2025.
- Housing Act 1988 — Section 13 rent review and Form 4A (as amended by RRA s.6).
This post reflects Harvey W James' operational understanding of the Renters' Rights Act 2025, the Housing Act 1988 (as amended), and the practical realities of managing new-build lettings in central London. It is not legal advice. For the published Act text refer to legislation.gov.uk; for your specific situation seek independent legal advice. Last reviewed against Essential Terms and Charges v2.1.5 (7 May 2026).