House building highest since 2007

23 Oct 2014

The National House Building Council (NHBC) has released figures showing that house building activity is at its strongest since before the financial crisis.

The organisation recorded 107,017 registrations to build houses between January and September this year. This is a 6% increase on 2013. Also, between July and September the number of registrations was 36,343 – up 8% on last year.

NHBC Chief Executive, Mike Quinton, said: ‘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 and 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’. But he also warned that small builders are still struggling to raise finance, describing lenders as ‘risk averse’.

The Home Builders’ Federation (HBF) said: ‘Help to Buy has increased the demand for new homes and builders are responding. The industry has increased its output at the quickest rate for 40 years’.