A report into the housing sector from leading real estate provider, Savills has shown that a staggering 86% of respondents believe that the housing sector is not doing enough to treat the housing crisis in the UK
However, 75% say there is room for improvement within their organisations to do more.
The report, ‘The Savills Housing Sector Survey 2018’Â includes responses from around 100 housing executives who were asked about sector capacity, priorities and ambition, along with 1,600 people from across the sector as part of their sentiment survey.
The main findings are being presented at Europe’s largest housing event, Housing 2018, in Manchester from 26th-28th June.
The research found that most people in the industry (64%) say the main priority for the housing sector is to build more homes, while 36% put greater emphasis on managing existing homes. It is suggested that this pattern remains consistent across sub-sectors, age and geography.
Almost all respondents (94%) agree that housing priority belongs to one of three main groups:
- working households unable to afford properties in the market
- the homeless
- vulnerable people
It is also widely agreed that the needs of these groups are not being met and show signs of progressively getting worse.
The general consensus across the board for the sector, prioritises social rent as the right tenure to meet needs in most instances, with more organisations than last year eager to deliver it.
However, senior housing association leaders want to put a greater focus onto getting more people into affordable homes that meet their needs, as they realise the challenge they face to supply an abundance of required affordable homes.
Despite wanting to make a change, obstacles such as land accessibility and financial arrangements still stand in their way of putting their ideas and plans into action, with 85% of organisations finding it difficult to get past these barriers.
Further findings suggest that leading experts within the housing sector expect Brexit to cause minimal damage to their businesses, apart from construction capacity and costs. Only 4% see Brexit as a barrier to building more affordable homes.
Although Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union won’t drastically affect demand for affordable housing, 94% of respondents believe it will reduce capacity in the construction industry. But this is in line with the wider construction industries views.
