NHBC reports good news for the house building industry with 153,339 new home registrations in 2021, an increase of 25% on 2020
Compared to when 2020 registrations fell to 122,935 – an 8-year low – the house building industry is now experiencing a significant rebound. As the house building industry emerges from the pandemic, new home completions also showed a significant uplift in 2021, increasing by 21% to 139,333 (2020 115,561).
Key to this drive was private sector registrations – rising from 80,475 in 2020 to 114,477 in 2021. This is an increase of more than 40%.
By contrast, new home registrations in the rental sector decreased 8% from 42,460 in 2020 to 38,862 in 2021. This is in part due to the deflection of Housing Association capital budgets towards building safety remediation on existing housing stock.
Regional growth
In 2021, 11 out of 12 UK regions saw growth in new home registrations.
- The North East experienced the strongest growth (registrations up by 74% to 7,467)
- North West (26%)
- Yorkshire & Humberside (31%)
- East Midlands (50%)
- Eastern (46%)
- South West (33%)
- Scotland (43%)
- Northern Ireland & Isle of Man (28%)
London was the only region to see a decline in registrations in 2021, down 27% compared to 2020, due to a combination of pandemic effects and some hesitation on apartment block registrations.
Changing views towards the home
Unsurprisingly the pandemic has changed people’s behaviours in their home and their attitude towards it. Many people are still working from home, and this has had an impact on recreation and family life and of course – the house building sector.
In 2021, registrations for detached, semi-detached, terraced homes and bungalows all increased. The largest increase was in detached homes, rising 47% from 35,520 in 2020 to 52,190 in 2021. Apartments were the only house type to see a year-on-year drop (-15%) from 32,625 registrations in 2020 to 27,867 in 2021.
NHBC chief executive Steve Wood has commented on the house building industry:
“The house building industry demonstrated considerable resilience in 2021, rebounding well from the pandemic and coping with significant strains in the supply chain.
“The pandemic has resulted in a real shift in the way people work and use their homes, with this likely to have some long-lasting effects, as seen in the high demand for detached properties.
“Whilst there has been a clear drop in the number of apartment registrations, the ‘death of the city’ is over-stated and we expect to see these start to increase in the medium-term, particularly with the continued investment in the build to rent sector.”
