New Homes Industry Still Waiting For Autumnal Sales

The new homes industry is still waiting for Autumn's traditional uplift to get home building quotas back on track, according the latest figures.

The number of new homes registered with NHBC dropped slightly during the last month, from 9,954 in August to 9,033 in September.

Figures from NHBC also showed that 29,625 new homes were registered during rolling quarter July - September 2010.

Imtiaz Farookhi, chief executive of NHBC, said: "Despite a strong performance in Spring of this year, registration levels during the Summer flattened out and there hasn't been the traditional Autumn uplift that perhaps many in the industry were hoping for.


"Confidence seemed to leave the market around the time of the election and has not returned. A further contributory factor has been the strictures surrounding mortgage finance, and these constraints have only increased in light of the review from the FSA.

He continued: "September's registration figures have dropped off a little but are certainly an improvement on last year. However, the Autumn selling season, which is traditionally strong, has yet to take hold due no doubt to a 'wait and see' policy from consumers who were concerned about the outcome of the Spending Review."

"The Spending Review has brought a reduction in funding for social housing and will, undoubtedly, have a knock-on effect for the sector as a whole and presents a significant threat to the fragile recovery we have experienced thus far," he said.

NHBC statistics for the rolling quarter July - September 2010 show that:

* Private sector registrations were up 32 per cent (at 20,594) when compared with the same period last year (15,577)

* Public sector registrations were 9,031 - 6 per cent higher than the same period a year ago (8,559)

* Registrations in the combined private and public sectors were 23 per cent up on the same period in 2009 (29,625 compared with 24,136)

(GK)