New home completions fell by 7% annually in 2024, says industry body
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The number of new home builds completed last year was 7% lower than in 2023, according to figures from an industry body.
New home warranty and insurance provider the National House Building Council (NHBC) recorded 124,144 new home completions last year, marking a 7% fall compared with 133,611 in 2023.
The NHBC has a 70%-plus share of the UK warranty market.
Its figures also indicate the stock of new properties in the pipeline because homes are registered with the NHBC before being built.
According to its figures, 104,232 new homes were registered in 2024 to be built, a figure which was broadly unchanged compared with 2023, when there were 105,071 registrations for homes to be built.
There are some encouraging signs for better house building growth conditions in 2025
Steve Wood, NHBC
Within this total, private sector registrations were up by 11% annually to 68,987 last year.
In the rental and affordable sector, the cost of remediating existing housing stock constrained development budgets, the NHBC said, with registrations falling by 18% in 2024 to reach 35,245.
Looking at the different property types in the pipeline, there was annual growth in detached and semi-detached home registrations in 2024, while registrations of apartments, bungalows and terraced properties experienced a decline, compared with 2023.
Under changes introduced by the Westminster Government, lower quality green belt land will be designated “grey belt” and released for construction as it seeks to build 1.5 million homes by 2029.
The Government has also outlined plans to streamline the home buying process, with a project to identify the design and implementation of agreed rules on data for the sector, so that it can be more easily be shared between conveyancers, lenders and others involved in a transaction.
NHBC CEO Steve Wood said: “While house building activity has remained broadly level with 2023, it is positive to see increased activity in the private sector. Recent announcements from the Chancellor (Rachel Reeves) on infrastructure and planning reform are welcome and with easing inflation, there are some encouraging signs for better house building growth conditions in 2025.
“A much greater focus on skills from government has been well received by the industry.”
Of the 124,144 new homes completed in 2024, 45,824 were in the rental and affordable sector, which was 2% down on 2023 but still the second highest figure on its records.
Private sector completions saw a decline of 10% on the previous year, with 78,320 plots confirmed as ready to be occupied.
Mr Wood said: “If ambitions in new build housing are to be met, a mix of tenures is essential for accelerating housing delivery.”
He added: “Private sale will continue to be the largest sector but affordable, social, and private build to rent tenures also need to be significantly scaled up.”
