August sees house-building dip but trend remains upwards

NHBC's new home registrations statistics reveal an increase of 11% for the rolling quarter June to August 2015, compared to the same period last year. A total of 40,101 new homes were registered with the NHBC in the UK during this period, up on the 36,149 new homes registered in the same quarter last year.

The private sector increased by 12% during this period (30,210 in 2015; 27,072 in 2014), with the public sector increasing by 9% from last year (9,891 in 2015; 9,077 in 2014).

However, registrations for August were down 6% (10,362 compared to 11,037 in August 2014). This was the first month since January that figures fell below last year’s respective monthly total.

The drop in August was mainly due to the public sector. Private sector registrations were down 1% in August (8,401 in 2015, 8,476 in August 2014) while the public sector was down 23% (1,961 versus 2,561 last August). This is the first monthly decline for the public sector for six months.

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.”

Full regional breakdown of total new homes registered June-August 2015 by region/country:

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