Boom in new house building

he new home registrations statistics reveal an increase of 11% for the rolling quarter June-August, compared to the same period last year.

A total of 40,101 new homes were registered in the UK during this period, up on the 36,149 new homes registered in the previous year.

The private sector increased by 12 per cent during this period (30,210 in 2015; 27,072 last year), with the public sector increasing by 9 per cent from last year (9,891 in 2015; 9,077 last year).

However, registrations for August were down marginally by 6 per cent (10,362 compared to 11,037 last year) – the first time since January that figures fell below last year’s respective monthly totals. For the month, the private sector was marginally down by 1 per cent (8,401 in 2015, 8,476 August 2014), with the public sector down 23 per cent (1,961 versus 2,561 last August); this decrease follows six consecutive months of growth when compared to last year for the public sector.

As the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, NHBC’s registration statistics help to provide new and accurate data on the country’s new homes market.

NHBC Chief Executive Mike Quinton said: “Despite a slight decrease for August, overall registration levels for the rolling quarter show the same steady growth we’ve seen throughout 2015.

“However, we are now seeing registration volumes fall in the public and affordable sector after a good start to the year.

“This may be due to many housing associations holding back on developments in light of welfare reforms and the cap on rental increases. We will closely monitor this over the coming months, along with the private sector, as the house building industry strives to build more new, quality homes that the UK needs.”

* NHBC’s role is to support the industry in maintaining and improving the build quality of new homes for homebuyers, whilst providing the benefit of its 10-year Buildmark warranty protection, when required.

It does this through a wide range of activities, from standards setting through technical support to warranty and insurance.