Housebuilders delivered enough homes to exceed population growth in the last year

February 20, 2020

The latest research by new home specialists, Stone Real Estate, has looked at the top performance by the UK’s housebuilders over the last year and how the quantity of new homes delivered compares to the growing need due to an ever-expanding population.

Stone Real Estate found that between 2018 and 2019, 203,900 new dwellings were completed across the UK. With the average property home to 2.4 people, that’s enough housing for some 483,243 people. During the same time frame, the population is predicted to have grown by 395,321, meaning that not only have UK housebuilders kept pace with the increase, but have provided enough homes to house another 88,000 people.

This oversupply was at its largest in England with enough homes built for an additional 43,000 people when compared to the increase in population, with enough for an additional 37,000 in Scotland, nearly 8,000 in Northern Ireland and just 200 in Wales.

Regionally, the South East has seen the largest oversupply when comparing completed dwellings to the increase in population with enough properties built to house an additional 23,000 people.

However, in the West Midlands, there was an undersupply of some 200 properties, while London was the only other region to see the population grow at a greater rate than the number of homes completed, needing an additional 37,000.

On a more local level, Wiltshire, Manchester and Milton Keynes saw the greatest level of housing supply to meet their growing populations, with enough homes delivered to house well over 3,000 additional people each.

Westminster was home to the worst shortfall with an additional 10,000 homes required, along with Camden (8,500) and Tower Hamlets (5,400).

Coventry was home to the biggest shortfall outside of London at just under 5,000 additional homes required. Sheffield, Wandsworth, Bristol, Birmingham, and Brighton also made the top 10.

Founder and CEO of Stone Real Estate, Michael Stone, commented:

“We’ve seen a fantastic job done of late by the nation’s homebuilders when it comes to the sheer volume of stock being delivered and when you compare the number of properties being completed in the last 12 months to the increase in population on a national level, this achievement becomes even more evident.

However, this isn’t the case everywhere and the draw of living in London and other larger cities, coupled with a lack of space to build on, has seen some areas fall behind in terms of the new homes being built compared to the increase in population.

It’s important we keep out foot on the gas and keep meeting demand with new-build supply as not only do we need to build more houses in some areas based on the last year alone, but we were already starting on the back foot due to fewer homes being built in previous years.

Of course, this underperformance can’t be placed solely at the doors of the industry’s developers, far from it. The real spanner in the works over recent years has been a lack of commitment by the government to actually let developers build, as well as a failure to free up land that has been wrongly designated as green belt and could serve a much better purpose meeting the appetite for homes across the UK property sector.”

Primary level – nations
Location
New Dwellings Completed (2018-19)
Number of people that can be housed by new dwellings
Estimated population change (2017-18 to 2018-19)
New dwelling capacity vs population change – as number of people
England
169,020
400,577
357,748
42,829
Wales
5,780
13,699
13,466
233
Scotland
21,290
50,457
13,300
37,157
Northern Ireland
7,810
18,510
10,807
7,703
United Kingdom
203,900
483,243
395,321
87,922
Secondary level – regions
Location
New Dwellings Completed (2018-19)
Number of people that can be housed by new dwellings
Estimated population change (2017-18 to 2018-19)
New dwelling capacity vs population change – as number of people
East Midlands
15970
37,849
32,483
5,366
East of England
19230
45,575
32,782
12,793
London
19360
45,883
83,080
-37,197
North East
9050
21,449
13,182
8,267
North West
20130
47,708
33,466
14,242
South East
32060
75,982
52,800
23,182
South West
20300
48,111
40,419
7,692
West Midlands
16800
39,816
40,051
-235
Yorkshire and The Humber
14000
33,180
29,485
3,695
Rankings – by best new dwelling capacity vs population change (England and Wales)
Location
New Dwellings Completed (2018-19)
Number of people that can be housed by new dwellings
Estimated population change (2017-18 to 2018-19)
New dwelling capacity vs population change – as number of people
Wiltshire
2,400
5,688
2,021
3,667
Manchester
2,350
5,570
2,126
3,444
Milton Keynes
1,760
4,171
1,086
3,085
Northumberland
1,720
4,076
1,244
2,832
Croydon
1,270
3,010
509
2,501
Ealing
710
1,683
-754
2,437
Basingstoke and Deane
1,060
2,512
392
2,120
South Oxfordshire
1,110
2,631
737
1,894
City of Kingston upon Hull
720
1,706
-28
1,734
Southampton
910
2,157
437
1,720
Rankings – by worst new dwelling capacity vs population change (England and Wales)
Location
New Dwellings Completed (2018-19)
Number of people that can be housed by new dwellings
Estimated population change (2017-18 to 2018-19)
New dwelling capacity vs population change – as number of people
Westminster
210
498
10,528
-10,030
Camden
160
379
8,865
-8,486
Tower Hamlets
1,820
4,313
9,741
-5,428
Coventry
710
1,683
6,636
-4,953
Islington
370
877
4,142
-3,265
Sheffield
880
2,086
4,717
-2,631
Wandsworth
380
901
3,217
-2,316
Bristol
790
1,872
4,153
-2,281
Birmingham
910
2,157
4,251
-2,094
Brighton and Hove
130
308
2,240
-1,932

 

 

Sources
House building statistics
Live tables on house building: new build dwellings
Housing: Property price, private rent and household survey and census statistics, used by government and other organisations for the creation and fulfilment of housing policy in the UK.
House building: permanent dwellings started and completed by English region
Population estimates
National and Local Authority Level Population Estimates
Average household size
Families and Households

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