New Year – Same Housing Shortage
It’s a brand new year and most of us are now back to work and more of you than ever are looking to buy land. We’ve had a recording breaking 10 days with many enquiries asking for information on self build and the land we have available.
The upturn in self build interest isn’t unexpected as people make decisions and plan what they want to achieve in the coming years and building a dream home for some will be a top priority. We get enquiries from people at all different stages in the process; some with a plot, some without, others are waiting for planning approval but most are just thinking and researching self build. Many of the thinker will eventually decide against building their own home and opt for the easier choice of buying a new ready built house.
The demand for new affordable houses is at an all time high and supply is at an all time low. One of the reasons for this is the lack of planning permission approval. In the third quarter of 2010 planning permission for new homes were at one of the lowest levels in 5 years according to Estate Agent Today (EAT). The EAT website goes on to say that household number projections show the need for around 232,0000 new homes to be built each year up to 2033. But the total built in 2009/2010 was just about 118,000 – that just over half of what is actually required.
The positive news for self builders and developers is that this year we’ll see some major improvements to planning procedure now that radical action is being taken by the Government.