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House-starts nearly double in three months to February
NEW house build activity in Wales continued to improve during the three months to February, despite further spells of severe weather across the country.
Registrations to build new homes during the three months to the end of February 2010 were 89% higher than the same time last year (from 490 to 927), with improvements visible across most unitary authorities, according to the National House Building Council (NHBC).
As January was a particularly strong month for new home registrations, figures during February were lower than those received the previous month (from 447 in January, to 234 in February). With further spells of severe weather, however, this was not unexpected and registrations during February were still 8% higher than the same time last year (216).
Peter Watton, NHBC director for Wales, said; “Although there has been a dip in registrations during February, the overall rolling quarter rise supports the cautious optimism that is beginning to seep back into the house-building industry.
“There is, of course, still a considerable way to go before house-building levels will be back on track. However, with the gradual rise of new home sales, despite continuing difficulties with mortgage availability, the industry is entering the spring building season with a shared sense of improvement across the sector.”
Of 927 registrations 732 were related to private sector activity – 186% higher than the same three-month period a year ago (256)
Figures released yesterday by the Welsh Assembly Government showed there are 1.3 million dwellings in Wales. The figure calculated at the end of March 2009, was up 8% on 1997.
The majority of dwelling stock, 71%, was owner occupied. A further 12% was privately rented, 8% rented from local authorities and 8% was rented from registered social landlords.
In the private sector, the largest increase since 1996-97 has been in the number of privately rented dwellings rising from 8% to 12% of all stock by March 31, 2009.
Over the same period, the proportion of owner-occupied stock remained more or less the same though numbers did increase from around 891,000 to 955,000.
In the social sector both the number and proportion of dwellings rented from local authorities has fallen by almost a half since 1996-97, whilst the number and proportion rented from registered social landlords has more than doubled over the same period.
This has been predominantly influenced by the large scale voluntary transfers of stock out of local authority control.
On a unitary authority level the most dwellings are in Cardiff at just over 140,000, followed by Swansea at nearly 105,000 and Rhondda Cynon Taf at nearly 103,000.
Merthyr has the lowest number of dwellings at 25,411 with the Isle of Anglesey second lowest at 32,107.
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