New home owner satisfaction rises

An increasing majority of new home owners are happy with their housebuilder and their new home, results from the annual industry customer satisfaction survey published today show. The results show that the industry has delivered a second successive year of improvements across all question areas after a period of declining results.

The Home Builders Federation, which conducts the survey with NHBC, said that the results reveal that 2018 saw more satisfied new home owners than in any previous year since the survey began in 2006 following a recommendation by Kate Barker as part of the then government’s Barker Review of Housing Supply in 2004.

The survey was sent to almost 100,000 new build buyers and finds that:

• 87% of new buyers would “recommend their builder to a friend". This is up from 86% last year, and 84% in 2016
• More than 90% of those who bought a new build home would buy new again
• 86% were satisfied with the quality of their new home, up 1%

As output increased rapidly between 2014 and 2017 the survey reported falls in satisfaction levels across all question areas, something the industry was heavily criticised for. “As a result, there …