The surge in house-building has continued to build pace with new figures showing more than 40,000 new homes were registered in the UK during the first three months of 2015.
According to the latest report from the National House-Building Council (NHBC), a total of 40,281 new homes were registered in Q1 2015, compared to the 34,163 during the first quarter of 2014. This equals an increase of 18%, and also represents a year-on-year rise of 26% for homes in the private sector, which reached 30,691 compared to the public sector’s 9,590, which was down by 1%.
According to the NHBC, the figures for Q1 2015 are the highest since the final quarter of 2007.
Mike Quinton, chief executive of NHBC, said: “Our figures show an encouraging start to 2015 with new housing registrations up 18% on the first quarter of last year. Housing growth levels remain strong across virtually every part of the UK.
“However, we have made clear that the UK is still building way below the volumes of homes that we need. NHBC looks forward to working with Government to ensure that high quality new housing is a top priority.”
Nationally, the South East saw the greatest gains on last year’s figures, with over 2,000 more homes registered in the region than in the same period in 2014. This was closely followed by the Eastern region, which saw registrations increase by more than 1,784. Unexpectedly, Great London saw a fall of more than 2,270 registrations, suggesting that house-building growth is being felt nationally more than in the capital.
The figures also showed that 17,210 new homes were registered in March alone, marking an increase of 32% on the same month last year.
