Housing market gloom

They show that for the first quarter of 2008 there were 37,839 building applications compared to 53,717 for the same period last time – a decrease of 30 per cent. Housing association registrations were also down by 11 per cent.

NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: "The figures for the first quarter of this year clearly reflect a toughening market.

“The biggest decreases in new home starts were seen in Northern Ireland and the North East, where figures showed a year-on year decrease of 65 and 60 per cent respectively for the quarter."

On top of this, the figures revealed that housing completions had dropped significantly with a decrease of 14 per cent.

But there was good news for first time buyers as the NHBC’s ‘ability to buy’ index was up by 13 points to 50 from the last quarter of 2007.

The index takes into account the average cost of homes bought by first time buyers, average income and mortgage interest rates.