Q3 2003 new house-building statistics UK 14/02/06
In Great Britain the average anticipated selling price of new homes started during the third quarter of 2003 increased by five per cent on the same period in 2002. There was slightly bad news for first time buyers who found their ability to buy fell further in the third quarter. NHBC, the new homes standards and warranty company, has published these figures in its New House-Building Statistics booklet for quarter three 2003.
The average anticipated selling price of new homes (started by NHBC registered builders) was £165,000 during quarter three of 2003, a five per cent increase on quarter three 2002 (£157,000). Based on actual selling prices, the proportion of homes priced at over £100,000 went up to 87 per cent, a significant increase on the same period last year (77 per cent).
NHBC's first time buyers' ability to buy index decreased by one point during the quarter to 99 (quarter two was 100.) 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.
Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of NHBC, says:
"NHBC statistics show that the number of applications to start new homes in both the private and social housing sectors have shown strong growth over the past two months. Furthermore, new home prices increased over the last quarter, which suggests that the housing market has made a strong recovery after fluctuations in the first half of this year."
UK-wide figures show a total of 45,067 applications to start new homes during the third quarter, showing a nine per cent increase on the same period in 2002 (41,311). Of that total, 40,924 relate to private sector activity (i.e. excluding housing associations), showing a nine per cent increase on the same quarter of 2002 (37,567). Housing association starts totalled 4,143 an increase of 11 per cent on quarter three 2002 (3,744).
NHBC UK figures show that there were 38,439 new build completions during quarter three of 2003, a four per cent decrease on the same quarter last year (40,072).
The figure for the average daily sales of new homes in quarter three 2003 was 507, a decrease of ten per cent on the same period a year ago (563).
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