NHBC figures show new home starts down 47% in 2008
The number of NHBC registrations to start building new homes fell to 106,894 in 2008, a drop of 47% on a year earlier. But it is the comparison of the final quarter of 2008 with that of 2007 that brings the true scale of the trauma in the house building market into sharp focus. The industry started fewer than 30% as many homes between October and the end of the year in 2008 than a year earlier.