New house build applications down by half
- Published: 04 September 2008 12:33
- Last Updated: 04 September 2008 12:48
Economic pressures continue to hit house builders with NHBC figures showing applications to build new homes are down by almost half compared to last year.
Latest figures show there were 28,086 applications to start new homes in the three months from May to July 2008 - a 47 per cent decrease on the 52,907 applications for the same period a year ago.
Of the applications 17,835 related to private sector activity, a 58 per cent decrease on the 42,123 last year.
And housing association starts totalled 10,251 for the three months to the end of July - a decrease of five per cent on the 10,784 last year.
The Government announced a number of initiatives this week to boost the ailing house building market, including building 5,500 new affordable homes over the next 18 months.
NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: "With poor demand continuing to affect building activity severely on sites, we welcome the Government's package of measures to re-energise the housing market, including interest free loans for first-time buyers, which should go some way to restoring consumer confidence."
