New House Building, January to March 2012

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

The latest release updates the statistics previously released on 21 March 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:

• The number of starts in Wales during 2011-12 has 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. This drop follows two years of moderate increases in the numbers of starts. The current levels only account for around 50 per cent of those seen prior to the downturn.
• The number of completions in Wales has only marginally increased (1 per cent) during 2011-12, however this is the first increase in the annual number of completions since 2006-07. Over this period the number of completions has fallen steadily from around 9,000 to a little over 5,500. This increase in the number of completions may be due to the increase in the number of starts between 2008-09 and 2010-11.
• Even though there was a slight increase in the number of completions during 2011-12, completions in the January to March quarter 2012 fell to the lowest ever recorded during a quarter (quarterly data was first collected in January to March 1974).

Contact

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

Next update

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