The Office for National Statistics latest data shows a drop in house building starts in Q1 2024 compared to Q1 2023
The Office for National Statistics has released their latest data, revealing that house build starts have dropped by 34% in the first quarter of 2024, despite leaving a recession.
In Q1 2023, house starts sat at 44,940, whereas Q1 2024 stats show just 29,820.
House building is down in Q1 2024
Furthermore, the number of completed homes is down by 17% compared to Q1 2023.
This marks the worst quarterly performance since 2016, and brings predicted finished homes for 2024 down to 153,000 — a little over half of the government’s target.
Due to the low figures, calls for further government support have been louder than ever.
More support is needed to bring numbers up
British Property Federation chief executive Melanie Leech commented: “The housebuilding figures for the first quarter underline the scale of the challenge in delivering the government’s target of 1.5m homes by 2029.
“We will not reach and sustain this level of housebuilding nor meet the needs of individuals and families by focusing on homes for sale alone; we need to also supercharge the build-to-rent sector and look at how to unlock the delivery of affordable housing of all tenures.
“Built-to-rent, or multi-family, is fundamental to housing supply in countries such as the US and Australia, and there is a huge opportunity through the government’s reform of the planning system to attract more long-term institutional capital to accelerate the growth of the sector in the UK and alleviate the pressure on supply in our cities.
“For affordable homes the challenge is often viability, and we have called for government to increase the level of subsidy available which would in turn unlock more private capital to work in partnership with housing associations.
“The property sector is fully committed to working with the new government to address the long-term under-supply and under-development of homes and we are pleased to see the new government hit the ground running in addressing some of the challenges developers are facing on the ground.”
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