Charles Holland, Head of Residential Development and Investment at Marsh & Parsons, comments: “Behind the grey headlines, house building is the one bright spot in the current construction landscape. Public and private sector housing are the only sectors to have witnessed an increase in construction output quarter-on-quarter. A minor monthly setback in March can be forgiven, because the direction of travel over the past few years is certainly heading in the right direction and its private house building and development that is firmly at the wheel of this growth.
“London needs to build more new homes than anywhere else in the country. But they also need to be delivered at the right price. Its not just enough for our new Mayor to pledge an annual quota for house building while that’s challenging in itself, it needs to be coupled with affordability to truly work for everyday Londoners. House building efforts in the capital need to cater for the 250,000 to 850,000 price range, as this is where we see the strongest and most urgent buyer demand from first-timers and growing families.”
ONS Output in the Construction Industry, March & Q1 2016
- In March 2016, output in the construction industry was estimated to have decreased by 3.6% compared with February 2016.
- New housing output fell 0.3% in March 2016 compared with February 2016.
- In Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016, output in the construction industry was estimated to have decreased by 1.1% compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2015.
- Between Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 and Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2015, output was estimated to have decreased by 1.9%.
- In Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016, there was an increase of 4.8% in total new housing output compared with Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2015. Both public and private new housing reported increases of 4.2% and 4.9% respectively. All new housing has shown underlying growth since Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2013, with the exception of Quarter 3 (July to Sept) 2015.
- When compared with the same period a year ago, there was an increase of 3.4% in total housing, with private housing increasing by 7.5% offset slightly by a fall in public new housing of 14.3%.
- The level of private new housing is the main contributor to the level of total new housing, with public new housing having a much smaller contribution.
- The level of private new housing has been increasing gradually since early 2013 and in Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 was at its highest since records began in 1997 at 6.3 billion, while the level of total new housing is also at its highest at 7.5 billion.
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