New House Building, April to June 2012

This Statistical Release presents information on the number of new dwellings started and completed in Wales for the period April to June 2012.

The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 13 June 2012. The information on new house building is based on the reports of local authority building inspectors and the National House Building Council (NHBC), which is a private approved inspector. It does not include information from other private approved inspectors.

The key points from the latest release are:

• During 2011-12, the number of starts decreased for the first time since 2008-09, bringing the figure back down to a similar level to that seen at the beginning of the economic downturn in 2008-09. Latest quarterly figures for April to June 2012, however, show an increase of 3 per cent when compared with the same quarter of 2011.
• On an annual basis the number of completions in Wales increased only slightly (1 per cent) during 2011-12, probably due to an increase in the number of starts between 2008-09 and 2010-11. This increase has carried through into 2012-13 with the number of completions during the April to June quarter up for the second year in a row.
• In recent years the number of new dwellings completed for the private sector has been steadily falling, however during 2011-12 completions increased by 5 per cent on 2010-11. In contrast, RSL completions, which had generally been increasing, decreased by 16 per cent during 2011-12. As yet it is too early to tell whether this indicates a change in trend.

Contact

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

Next update

December 2012 (provisional - to be confirmed on 'Due out Soon' page)