Shapps: UK may never build enough houses

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The U.K. is unlikely to ever develop enough houses and apartments to meet the demand of its population, Housing Minister Grant Shapps said.

Britain needs to build around 245,000 residential properties annually in the decade through 2023 to meet demand, according to the Department for Communities and Local Government. That would leave a shortfall of at least 43,000 homes a year for the next five, Savills Plc (SVS) estimates.

Actually unless mortgage lending improves dramatically and quickly, that would leave a shortfall of at least 100,000 houses a year for the next few years.

Plus the 100K a year shortfall for the last few years.

Plus the million or more house shortfall that already existed in 2007.

“There isn’t one thing you can do to solve this,” Shapps said in an interview yesterday. “In the really best possible imaginable circumstances, the boom in the housing market, we were still only building 170,000,” he said. “If you couldn’t do it then, it’s even harder now.”

Oh dear....

And why is that?

“The main constraints are a lack of mortgage availability, having enough developable land coming through the planning system and regulation.”

Obvious really.

Builders won't build what they can't sell, no matter how easy planning permission is to get.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-22/britain-may-never-fix-residential-property-shortage-shapps-says.html

ILW

We need to control the population then.

Graham_Devon

“There isn’t one thing you can do to solve this,”

He's a liar.

Hang the builders out to dry and remove stimulus. Those that want to avoid bankrupcy will build houses to sell and make money.

The car scrappage scheme is an excellent example. Car companies suddenly wiping massive percentages off their cars to get rid and make a sale. It was priced to sell, and sold. Until of course the government offered the scrappage scheme, and suddnely prices were higher than they were before the problems even existed.

CLAPTON

we need a bit of money being printed and lent out diretly by our friendly government mortgage company
it would directly stimulate the economy and creat houses that are genuinely needed.

de1amo

i am glad there arent enough homes---much as i hate DM but he is looking after the landlords because he is a tory and the people gave him his mandate to look after wealth--i cant change the results of the last election but i have become richer from DM's policies!

shortchanged_2

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Builders won't build what they can't sell, no matter how easy planning permission is to get.

No, builders are determined to manipulate the current situation so they can reap the rewards later.

I'm sure they can drop the price of the houses they are selling instead of having all this shared equity sh*t.

I personally am not convinced a builder needs to sell a 3 bedroom shoebox for £170,000+ where I am just to make a profit.

There is one new development near me where the 3 bed houses are on for £130,000 - £135,000 and guess what, they are flying off the shelves, albeit probably with the assistance of shared equity but at least the prices are more resaonable.

ILW

I find the margins a bit strange.
Surely the cost (excluding land) is roughly the same to build a house in Surrey as it is in Sunderland.
The difference in selling price seems to bear little relation to only the cost of land though.

CLAPTON

ILW wrote: »

I find the margins a bit strange.
Surely the cost (excluding land) is roughly the same to build a house in Surrey as it is in Sunderland.
The difference in selling price seems to bear little relation to only the cost of land though.

out of interest what is the price of building land in surrey and sunderland?

pqrdef

CLAPTON wrote: »

out of interest what is the price of building land in surrey and sunderland?

Whatever the market will bear, this being determined by what the houses will fetch.

CLAPTON

pqrdef wrote: »

Whatever the market will bear, this being determined by what the houses will fetch.

indeed so,

I was however, asking in the context of people saying that the difference in price of similar houses in different parts of the country was not adequately explained by the price of land.
Something I doubt although I would of course expect labour costs to be higher in the SE.

pqrdef

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Actually unless mortgage lending improves dramatically and quickly, that would leave a shortfall of at least 100,000 houses a year for the next few years.

But where are all these people? Have we got hundreds of thousands of people living under railway viaducts, or what?

Or is it like, there are millions of people renting who say they'd buy if they could, but if we built them all a house and gave them a mortgage, all those rented houses would then be left empty?

The house-building industry's notion of demand doesn't necessarily equate to a real housing shortage.