Blog Post
New home building beginning to slow
Tom Simper
Jan 29, 2024, 13:00 PM
In 2023 there were close to 240,000 new build completions, showing that new build supply held up relatively well, albeit short of the government’s 300k target. With the exception of Covid, it has been above 240,000 since 2018.
In a slower sales market, we would expect new building to slow too, as developers respond to market conditions and there are already signs of a slowdown. In most UK regions, there were fewer completions in 2023 than 2022, overall, they were down -8.6%.
The slowdown was more evident in the more expensive regions (London and South East both 14% down on 2022) perhaps suggesting that affordability was already affecting buyer demand, or that land costs were becoming prohibitive.
Yorkshire and the Humber was the only region where the number of completions rose last year while East Midlands maintained its 2022 level.
Most of the projects completed in 2023 would have been started well before interest rates started to rise, and with developers feeling the absence of Help to Buy, it is likely that next year the number might be lower again. Source: Dataloft, DLUHC, Energy Performance Certificates for Buildings Register for England and Wales
Leave a comment