House Building up 7% on last year...

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

The number of new homes being built in England rose by 6% in the three months to June, according to government figures.

On a seasonally-adjusted basis, there were 29,510 housing starts.

In the year to June, construction work started on 110,530 new homes, a 7% increase on the previous year.

But the number of new homes being built is still far smaller than before the recession in 2008.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23709342

Increased mortgage availability leads to more houses being built, and more people buying homes.

Prices are up 3% or 4% since last year as well, but this is slow and steady HPI, is increasing confidence in the wider economy, and will help bring more stock to the market as the price response kicks in.

Excellent news all around, and yet more positive feedback for the government that HTB is starting to work and should be expanded next year as planned.

:beer:

IronWolf

It's still not really enough though is it. What is the number of homes built compared to the estimated number of extra homes needed each year?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

IronWolf wrote: »

It's still not really enough though is it.

Nowhere near enough.

We need 250K a year just to keep up with current need, more like 300K+ if we're to clear the backlog form the last decade or more, and we're now building a tad over 100K.

Still a very long way to go.

This chart shows just how awful mortgage rationing and falling prices have been for house building since 2008.



It'll take at least a decade, maybe far longer, to undo the damage to housing supply caused by the crash.

Which is particularly infuriating given that we were finally within spitting distance of building around the number of houses we need each year in 2007.

Rising prices cause building to increase every year from 2001 to 2007.

Mortgage rationing, and it's associated falling prices, killed that. And have now penalised a generation of young people to spend a decade enriching their landlords instead of themselves.

It boggles the mind that some people on here are stupid enough to celebrate that as being a good thing.

Generali

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-23709342

Increased mortgage availability leads to more houses being built, and more people buying homes.

Prices are up 3% or 4% since last year as well, but this is slow and steady HPI, is increasing confidence in the wider economy, and will help bring more stock to the market as the price response kicks in.

Excellent news all around, and yet more positive feedback for the government that HTB is starting to work and should be expanded next year as planned.

:beer:

It's a huge change that supply is allowed to expand as demand does rather than prices simply rising. Good news for buyers and builders.

ILW

Generali wrote: »

It's a huge change that supply is allowed to expand as demand does rather than prices simply rising. Good news for buyers and builders.

Is that happening?

Graham_Devon

ILW wrote: »

Is that happening?

On a very simplistic basic supply is rising as is demand.

But supply is in no way keeping up with the extra demand created.

michaels

Generali wrote: »

It's a huge change that supply is allowed to expand as demand does rather than prices simply rising. Good news for buyers and builders.

And yet 3 countries with the most flexible supply (US, Eire and Spain) saw huge price and construction bubbles and resultant crashes, similarly apartments in Northern UK cities.

Why has the more constrained (in supply) market in SE England been more stable?

chewmylegoff

Given the low numbers involved (7% equates to little more than 7,000 additional starts) I would say that house building is more or less flat personally. In my view 7,000 more houses will not make any noticeable difference to the supply vs. demand equation.

Loughton_Monkey

Let's make 2 assumptions here:

1. This trend will continue reasonably well and all these new houses will sell easily.

2. The price of each house is 'reasonable' and consistent with what we know is happening to house prices generally.

Then I deduce from this that either we don't have a house price bubble, or the profits of these builders will be stonkingly high, per house.

Let's wait and see, but meanwhile I think a large gin & tonic is in order [and a glass of bubbles - ironically - for Mrs LM. No pun intended].

Thrugelmir

IronWolf wrote: »

It's still not really enough though is it. What is the number of homes built compared to the estimated number of extra homes needed each year?

There's more to town planning than just building houses somewhere. All the infrastructure has to be in place.

Then there needs to be jobs as well!

Plenty of new builds for sale around me. One entire estate was sold off to become social housing. Simple reason being there's been a down turn in jobs. With some sizable losses with more to come. ( Local council has put all it's staff on notice, with many needing to reapply for existing positions). Until a new employer comes along then demand will remain suppressed.

chucky

Thrugelmir wrote: »

There's more to town planning than just building houses somewhere. All the infrastructure has to be in place.

Then there needs to be jobs as well!

Plenty of new builds for sale around me. One entire estate was sold off to become social housing. Simple reason being there's been a down turn in jobs. With some sizable losses with more to come. ( Local council has put all it's staff on notice, with many needing to reapply for existing positions). Until a new employer comes along then demand will remain suppressed.

There goes that supply theory in your area out of the window.