Social housing delivery was on the increase pre-pandemic

Market analysis by real estate debt advisory specialists, Sirius Property Finance, has revealed that the level of social housing being built not only hit a 13 year high prior to the outbreak of COVID-19 but social housing as a percentage of all homes built also hit its highest levels since 2015/16.

The analysis of the latest dwelling completions data by Sirius found that the total number of homes delivered to the UK market hit 210,984 in 2019/20 before the pandemic stopped the industry in its tracks.

This marked a 3.5% increase on the previous year and the highest number of homes completed in a single year since 2007/08. However, it was also the smallest annual uplift in housing delivery seen since 2012/13.

When dissecting the market by private and social dwelling delivery, the data shows that 169,087 new homes were delivered via the private sector in 2019/20 across the UK market.

Again, the highest level of new homes completed on an annual basis since 2007/08 and 2.2% more than the previous year. But, this annual increase was also the smallest seen since 2012/13.

In comparison, just 41,897 social dwellings were completed in 2019/20. While this only equates to 20% of total homes built, it’s the highest proportion of market share since 2015/16.

It’s also the highest level of social housing delivered to the UK market in a single year this side of the millennium and the largest annual increase (8.8%) since 2014/15.

Head of Corporate Partnerships at Sirius Property Finance, Kimberley Gates, commented:

“The private sector has done a tremendous job ramping up the delivery of new housing across the UK and while we’re yet to return to the highs of 2007, we’re certainly heading in the right direction.

However, it’s important to also recognise the great work that is being done with regards to the delivery of social housing.

Although it still accounts for a far smaller proportion of total housing stock, there have been notable efforts to boost social housing delivery and we’re now consistently seeing annual completions hit their highest levels this side of the millennium – and by some margin.”

Housing delivery statistics for England sourced from Gov.uk – Live tables on housebuilding

Housing delivery statistics for Wales sourced from StatsWales.gov – New dwellings completed by period and tenure

Housing delivery statistics for Scotland sourced from Gov.scot – Housing statistics quarterly update

Housing statistics for Northern Ireland sourced from Finance-NI.go.uk – New dwellings statistics

Note: 2020/21 data not currently available for Scotland and Wales so 2019/20 used as the latest data for UK wide completions

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