What you need to know
The house building industry continued to grow in 2018 despite some unfavourable market conditions; including Brexit headwinds, continued public sector constraints and a sluggish London and South East market.
Nonetheless, the value of the market continued its impressive trajectory, driven by ongoing under-supply, the continued popularity of help-to-buy schemes and further inflation across pricing. Accordingly, demand continues to be secure opportunities for lucrative profits, with the scope of house builders broadening to more northerly regions in recent years.
However, the future of this growth looks somewhat fragile, despite government commitments to building 300,000 new homes annually by the mid-2020s. Underlying growth in the market remains tied to heavy private investment, which could be suppressed by the potential climate of uncertainty post-Brexit, while the government is yet to commit to an extension of the Help to Buy scheme beyond 2021.
Covered in this Report
For the purposes of this Report, Mintel has used the following definitions:
Public sector housing: comprising housing schemes, old people's homes and the provision within housing sites of roads and services for gas, water, electricity, sewage and drainage. Such housing schemes are funded by local authorities or increasingly housing associations.
Private sector housing: comprising all privately-owned buildings for residential use, such as houses, flats and maisonettes, bungalows, cottages and the provision of services to new developments.
Starts: defined as when work commences on the laying of a dwelling's foundation.
Completion: defined as when a dwelling becomes available for occupation.
Dwelling: a building, or any part of a building, that forms a separate and self-contained set of premises designed to be occupied by a single family.
East Anglia: Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk
East Midlands: Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Nottinghamshire
North East: Cleveland, Durham, Northumberland, Tyne & Wear
North West: Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Merseyside, Cumbria
South East: Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Essex, Hampshire,
Hertfordshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey, West Sussex, Greater London
South West: Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire
West Midlands: Hereford, Worcester, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands
Yorkshire and Humberside: Humberside, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, West Yorkshire
