Self-build ‘revolution’ questioned as numbers fall
Wednesday, 13 July 2011 2:35 PM
The Government may be seeking to encourage a self-build ‘revolution’ but new figures released today show that the number of people constructing their own home is falling.
Housing Minister Grant Shapps last month called on the UK’s biggest mortgage lenders to provide more funds to those aspiring to build their own home.
Shapps proposed a “self-build revolution” in a letter to sent to key players in the mortgage market in which he spelt out his plan to make self-builds more common.
But new figures from Homebuilding & Renovating magazine’s 2011 Q1 UK Self-build Market Report highlight a considerable gap between the housing minister’s ambitions and reality.
The report reveals the number of self-build homes completed in the UK for the year to 31 March 2011 was 13,860 – a year-on-year decline of 11.5 per cent.
This is a sharp contrast to the figure of 17,000-plus regularly achieved in the five years from 2004/2005 to 2008/2009.
Michael Holmes, editor-in-chief of Homebuilding & Renovating, said: “We fully support Grant Shapps’ self-build revolution initiative but with figures declining more needs to be done and soon if self-build is to be a viable option for many.
“The key issues of planning and finance stand in the way and we see from our report that numbers are unlikely to improve significantly until the availability of self-build funding returns to more normal levels. We believe this will not be until 2012 at the earliest.”
Want to be the first to know when we break a story? Follow @AboutProperty on Twitter and subscribe to our free weekly newsletter.
