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Tag: house building

Searching for a Higgs Boson to explain the unsolved problems of the housing market

Searching for a Higgs Boson to explain the unsolved problems of the housing market

Over the past few months, particularly the past few days, I have bathed in data, ideas, business models, policies and blue sky thinking on how we can deliver more housing in the UK. This was the central theme running through yesterday’s Housing Market Intelligence conference. It was the broad thread that tied together the expert analyses in the associated Housing Market Intelligence report, which I edit. It was also the basic question that underpinned an Institute of Economic Development London…

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Are we ignoring one of the biggest construction opportunities out there?

Are we ignoring one of the biggest construction opportunities out there?

One of the greatest challenges for the nation is to repurpose its outmoded built environment to better match the needs of a vastly changed world. It needs to adapt offices and shops to fit with the Internet age. It needs to meet the environmental challenges. It needs to improve all forms of communication. And not last and definitely not least it needs to adapt and expand its stock of housing to meet massive demographic shifts. This is a topic that…

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Non-resi building sector could be hardest hit as house builders suck hard on the supply chain

Non-resi building sector could be hardest hit as house builders suck hard on the supply chain

The resurgence of house building has brought with it fears of a supply chain so stretched that we will see shortages appearing, production held back and costs rising. There’s almost certainly something in this. It seems to be common currency. As I’ve discussed before, there are emerging problems with the supply of bricks and labour. And EC Harris, for example, has picked up early signs that prices of materials associated with house building are rising faster than the average for…

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The official construction figures add to the growing case for cautious optimism

The official construction figures add to the growing case for cautious optimism

The latest construction output figures provide yet more reasons to suspect that the industry may be pulling itself out of its slough. This evidence is reinforced by the release of the newly-constituted new orders figures. The construction output data for July show the index of construction activity has risen to its highest level since last October. This measure, which is seasonally adjusted and deflated to account for price changes, stood in July at 95.5 against 100 in 2010. This may…

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Finding smiley faces in the wallpaper – a look at today’s house building data

Finding smiley faces in the wallpaper – a look at today’s house building data

What can be said of the latest (second quarter) house building statistics that we don’t already really know, or suspect we know? Probably not a lot. The chances are they tell us more about the things we are likely to forget or ignore. Let’s look at the statistics for house building in England. Starts were well up, a bumper 37% (not seasonally adjusted) comparing 2013Q2 with 2012Q2. But this is comparing a relatively event-free sun-baked quarter with a rain-sodden Jubilympics…

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Has the Government found a cure for the disease afflicting the housing market?

Has the Government found a cure for the disease afflicting the housing market?

The short answer to the question in the headline is no. The slightly longer answer requires a question: It depends what you mean by the housing market? But, as that sounds like obfuscation, the most honest answer I can come up with is that while the housing market may appear to be in remission the disease is spreading. I say this because we’ve had such a welter of “good news” on the housing front recently that you’d could be forgiven…

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A good quarter in a bad half for construction

A good quarter in a bad half for construction

Construction output rose 1.4% in the second quarter of this year compared with the first, according to the latest ONS data. You might think: “Whoopee here we go!” But we’d have hoped for, if not expected, some bounce back after the first quarter of the year came in at its lowest level for a single quarter for more than a decade. If we compare the first half of this year with the final half of last the numbers suggest the…

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Is the recent surge in brick deliveries a sign of rapid growth in house building?

Is the recent surge in brick deliveries a sign of rapid growth in house building?

Today’s release of what are fairly obscure figures to most people show brick stocks plunging to the lowest level since the 1980s and a surge in deliveries comparing the latest quarter with a year ago. A rise of 16% year to year should be something to write home about, shouldn’t it? This apparent boost to production must be of interest to the armies of economists and commentators keen to spot potential effects that can be tracked back to the Help…

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Not much more sun, but fewer black clouds in latest construction industry forecasts

Not much more sun, but fewer black clouds in latest construction industry forecasts

The recent welter of more upbeat economic data has left the numbers in the latest construction industry forecasts pretty much unmoved, with the exception of private housing. The broad view is still that this year will see output fall, between 1.5% and 3.8%, with recovery taking place sometime between the end of this year and sometime next year, depending on which forecast you look at. Excluding private housing, there have been tweaks here and there as the forecasters have adjusted…

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Reading the runes of the RICS construction survey and finding optimism elsewhere

Reading the runes of the RICS construction survey and finding optimism elsewhere

Today I read headlines suggesting the recovery in construction is on its way. Ultimately it is, but when? The cause of the excitement was the RICS construction market survey, which comes hard on the heels of lots of seemingly more favourable data. The RICS survey is a useful tool and potentially a good early indicator of the fortunes of the wider construction industry. But the data need to be interpreted with caution. So while many of the indicators in the…

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