Roofing Products Market Stalls as Housebuilding Recovery Remains Slow

The UK roofing products market remained level in 2025 after two years of negative growth as weak housebuilding activity, cost pressures and low market confidence continue to weigh on demand.

According to an industry report by Barbour ABI, the market remained broadly stagnant in 2025, with an estimated 1% increase in value, reflecting lower project volumes and reduced contractor activity.

The UK roofing products market is estimated to be worth around £1.3bn at manufacturers’ selling prices in 2025.

Market Stalls

Ed Griffiths, Barbour ABI Head of Business and Client Analytics, said: “The roofing products market can be seen a proxy for construction as a whole. After all, every building needs a roof, and the signs are not good.

“The slowdown we have been seeing has been driven by the decline in residential housebuilding across the UK. Despite government efforts to accelerate planning reform and increase housing delivery, current new-build activity remains muted, particularly in the public housing sector.”

With challenging economic conditions, the UK roofing products market is forecast to show only marginal growth in the next 1-2 years, supported primarily by RMI activity – commercial & industrial refurbishment work and residential re-roofing projects. RMI is particularly significant within the roofing market, as roofing repairs or replacements are non-discretionary works that cannot be easily delayed or postponed.

New housebuilding is forecast to return to growth in 2026, with starts increasing by 7% and completions by 4%. The continued undersupply of new homes, particularly affordable homes, is expected to support demand for new dwellings and in turn roofing products.

New Opportunities

Carbon reduction targets related to Part L have effectively ruled out fossil fuel heating on new properties, meaning that the roof is transitioning form a passive weather barrier into a primary energy generation hub.

The Future Homes Standard is forcing the adoption of solar-ready systems, with the market favouring new, innovative solar roofing products such as interlocking solar shingles and ‘click’ BIPV systems.

Researchers also found increasing demand for flat roof membranes, which now account for around one third of total sales, due to the growing popularity of living roofs. This is because local council mandates are pushing commercial developers to integrate green roofs and bio solar rooftop layouts to help achieve biodiversity net gain targets.

“There are reasons to be positive for businesses in this sector,” concluded Griffiths. “The evolving regulatory landscape is making this sector quite dynamic, and there are opportunities to profit from new technologies and solutions for those agile enough to adapt.

“Ambitious businesses would do well to focus on the likes of solar technologies, green and blue roofs, recycled materials, offsite roof components, drone surveys, BIM and digital measurement tools to name a few.

“Meanwhile, demand for new housing remains high and while this is the situation, it is likely that developers will continue to build reasonable numbers of new homes and create a steady market for roofing products.”

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