New House Building and Social Housing Sales, July to September 2010

Statistics on the number of new dwellings, started and completed, and the number of social housing sales include data for Wales for the period July to September 2010.

The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 15 September 2010. The information on new house building is based on the reports of local authority building inspectors and the National House Building Council (NHBC). It does not include information from private approved inspectors.

The key points from the latest release are:

Dwelling stock

• At the 31 March 2009, there were 1.34 million dwellings in Wales.  Between 1 April 2009 and 30 September 2010, a total of 8,949 additional dwellings were built, 86 per cent of which were private sector dwellings.
• Between 1st April 2009 and 30th September 2010, a total of 550 socially rented dwellings have been transferred into the private sector through the sale of 195 local authority and 355 RSL dwellings, via Right to Buy and other schemes.

New House Building

• Both the number of new dwellings started and the number completed, continue to fluctuate. During the July to September quarter 2010, starts were down by 14 per cent on the previous quarter and by 9 per cent on the same period last year. Completions remained at a similar level to the same period last year but were down by 13 per cent on the previous quarter.

Social Housing Sales

• Overall, social housing sales have increased slightly since the beginning of 2009, though the 72 dwellings sold during the July to September quarter 2010 represents a 13 per cent decrease on the same period last year. The majority sold (81 per cent) were RSL dwellings.

Contact

Tel: 029 2082 5055
E-mail: stats.housing@wales.gsi.gov.uk

Next update

16 March 2011