New House Building, July to September 2012

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

The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 12 September 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. During the first half of 2012-13 however, numbers have shown an increase and the latest quarterly figures for July to September 2012, were up by 5 per cent on 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 the first half of 2012-13, with numbers up by 1 per cent in the April to June quarter and by 9 per cent in July to September, compared with the same quarters in 2011.
• 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. Though it is too early to tell whether this indicates a change in trend, the July to September quarter saw an increase of 23 per cent in private sector completions compared with a decrease of 50 per cent for RSLs.

Further information

Contact

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

Next update

March 2013 (provisional - to be confirmed on 'Due out Soon' page)