Homes delivery to fall to lowest in decade – Savills

Housing delivery in England is set to collapse to its lowest for a decade, according to Savills, with the number of new homes potentially falling to 160,000 homes over the next two years – significantly below the government’s 300,000 homes target.

Real estate agency Savills said that a combination of lower demand for new homes, providers’ reduced ability to deliver affordable housing and a “dramatic” reduction in planning consents would compromise new homes delivery from 2024/25.

These factors, it said, would lead to an average of 170,000 homes being built per year during the second half of the 2020s, with “no current policy proposals that look likely to turn the tide”.

And given the current policy landscape, including the “poorly performing” planning system and the discontinuation of Help to Buy, new private home sales would likely only yield around 100,000 new homes per year during the second half of the 2020s, according to Savills.

This could increase to 140,000 to 160,000 new homes sales per year by the late 2020s, if the planning system were to support a greater volume and range of sites.

Savills said that affordability “must play a central role in rebuilding the pipeline”. …