Registrations show house building got off to best start for eight years

House building has got off to its best start to the year since 2007 with most of the UK seeing strong growth, an industry body has reported.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) said that 40,281 new homes were registered between January and March, marking the highest total for the first three months of the year since 53,420 new registrations were recorded in early 2007.

The “encouraging” figures seen so far for 2015 also represent an 18 per cent increase when compared with the first three months of 2014, the NHBC said. But in London, new registrations were down by 29 per cent year-on-year in the first three months of 2015.

In March alone, 17,210 new homes were registered across the country, marking an upswing of nearly one third (32 per cent) compared with March 2014.

The NHBC’s registration figures are taken from builders who are responsible for around 80 per cent of homes constructed in the UK.

Builders are required to register a house with the NHBC before starting work, which means its figures represent homes that are to be built in the months ahead.

NHBC chief executive Mike Quinton said: “Our figures show an encouraging start to 2015 with new housing registrations up 18 per cent on the first quarter of last year.

“Housing growth levels remain strong across virtually every part of the UK.”

In Yorkshire and the Humber, the number of new-builds being registered was up by one third (33 per cent) on a year earlier, while in the South West of England the figure was up by 38 per cent.