Tom Kirk, director of NHBC Scotland, says: "House building registrations over the first nine months of 2000 are ten per cent down on the same period in 1999. This downturn is not surprising given the unusually high level of house building activity last year. When compared to the more representative statistics from 1998 we can see that that, over the first three quarters of this year, there was a five per cent increase on the same period in 1998."

In Scotland the average anticipated selling price of new homes (registered with NHBC) during the third quarter of 2000 was £96,000, a four per cent increase on quarter three 1999 (£92,000). Based on actual selling price, the proportion of homes sold for over £100,000 was 29 per cent, an increase on the same period last year (24 per cent).

For quarter three NHBC's first time buyers' ability to buy index stood at 114, six points higher than the previous quarter. The index is based on a formula which takes into account the average cost of homes bought by first time buyers, average income and mortgage interest rates (from the Nationwide Building Society). The higher the index, the greater the ability to buy.

UK-wide figures (including the Isle of Man) show a total of 39,425 applications to start new homes during the quarter, a decrease of less than one per cent on the same period in 1999 (39,535). Of that total, 35,600 relate to private sector activity (i.e. excluding housing associations), an increase of one and a half per cent on 1999 (35,050). Housing association starts totalled 3,825, a decrease of 15 per cent on quarter three 1999 (4,485).

NHBC figures show there were 36,200 new build completions during the third quarter of 2000, down seven per cent on the same quarter last year (39,100).

The figure for the average daily sales of homes in the third quarter of 2000 is 505, a decrease of nine per cent on the same period a year ago (555).

Q3 2000 regional figures

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