Browsed by
Tag: housing stock

This decade will be the first in more than a century when Britain’s homes become more crowded

This decade will be the first in more than a century when Britain’s homes become more crowded

Prepare for a massive shift in housing standards over the coming decade. That’s what I see when I read the latest UK population estimates released today. In fairness this story line is much the same as when the 2008-based estimates were released, except these figures show a bigger population growth (at 67.2 million in 2020 that’s an extra 700,000) and we now expect far fewer homes to be built over the coming decade than we might have hoped for a couple…

Read More Read More

England’s housing stock grows slower than the population for the first time in decades

England’s housing stock grows slower than the population for the first time in decades

The release today of the latest population estimates for 2010 revealed a reversal in the long-standing trend in England that the housing stock increases proportionately faster than the population. For more than a century the ratio of the number of people in England to the number of dwellings has, give or take a few blips and the effects of the World Wars, shrunk. The trend, from the best data I can find at the moment, was reversed in the decade…

Read More Read More

Housing shortage, what housing shortage?

Housing shortage, what housing shortage?

Few people disagree with the notion that there is a housing shortage in England. It is trotted out both as an argument for more social homes and as an underlying case for ever increasing house prices. I too subscribe to the view that we need to increase and enhance the English, and indeed UK, housing stock. But here is something that caught my eye when I was checking out some figures recently. Consider this: according to the Survey of English…

Read More Read More

If 2008 was bad for the housing market, 2009 looks much worse

If 2008 was bad for the housing market, 2009 looks much worse

There are plenty of scary figures in the latest forecast from the Council of Mortgage Lenders not least the expectation that half a million homeowners will fall into arrears. The expectation that 75,000 homes will be repossessed by mortgage lenders is pretty scary too, especially as this in practice would mean more repossessions than in previous peak of 1991 when all repossessions are totalled up. But for me the most disturbing prediction within the forecast is that residential property transaction…

Read More Read More

Britons £500 billion poorer as house prices fall

Britons £500 billion poorer as house prices fall

I thought it might be interesting to put the latest Nationwide house price data and the recent land write downs made by Taylor Wimpey into a different context. I’d say for fun, but the real consequences are far from funny to a lot of people. So here is a thought to conjure with: The value of all housing in the UK has dropped (assuming the Nationwide measure is accurate) by about £500 billion in less than a year. To put…

Read More Read More