UK house building hits highest level for seven years, says latest report from the NHBC

New house building figures released by NHBC today (22 October 2014) show that new home registrations have hit their highest level since 2007.

The figures for Q3 2014 reveal that overall new home registrations have increased 8% on the same period last year with the private sector continuing to be the main driver of growth.  These figures represent the highest year to date figures and the highest Q3 figures since 2007.

In total, 36,343 new homes were registered with NHBC between July and September this year (28,468 private sector; 7,875 public sector), compared to 33,573 (24,984 private sector; 8,589 public sector) for the same period in 2013.  This represents a 14% increase for the private sector, with the public sector still under-performing when compared to last year’s figures.  However, NHBC anticipates that public sector registrations will begin to grow again as the next phase of the Government’s Affordable Housing Programme has recently been allocated.

As the leading warranty and insurance provider for new homes in the UK, NHBC’s monthly registration statistics are a leading indicator of the health of the country’s new homes market.

Commenting on the latest statistics, NHBC’s Chief Executive Mike Quinton said: “We are very encouraged to see that house building is again beginning to show signs of accelerated growth across the UK.  Following the dramatic growth in 2013, we saw a period of consolidation in the first half of this year, but our latest data would suggest that the pace of growth is picking up again.

“Our figures show that the sharp housing upturn we have seen over the last couple of years is a genuine broad-based recovery across the whole of the country, with pockets of strong growth in the North East, Yorkshire & Humberside and West Midlands.  It is now increasingly apparent that housing growth is no longer London and South-East centric, with these regions beginning to show signs of cooling.

“However we must not lose sight of the fact that the UK still has a chronic shortage of new homes.  We have seen over recent weeks that all the main political parties regard housing as an ongoing key issue, reinforcing the fact that the country urgently needs more high quality and affordable new homes.”