Recent forecasts show that the UK might reduce the build of new houses to 35 percent this year as some of the country’s biggest homebuilders plan to resume construction work. The forecast analysis is published by Knight Frank, an estate agency, residential and commercial property consultancy based in London.
The impact of the Cover-19 pandemic has forced the domestic homebuilders to reduce the number of houses to be built in 2020.
It is reported that homebuilders including Persimmon, Vistry Group, and Taylor Wimpey plan to start work on their respective construction sites in the coming weeks. In particular, new housing in London is anticipated to take a hit to its lowest point since 2014, media reports said.
This is because of 8,000 homes in the city compared to the five-year private housing deliver average which recorded 14,405 completions. Oliver Knight, a research associate at Knight Frank, said in the company’s analysis report, “More intangibly, consumer sentiment will also impact recovery, and the fact remains that housebuilders will only build what they can sell. In the short-term, this will mean giving priority to restarting and completing sites where there are existing customer orders. Though it is encouraging to note that both Persimmon and Taylor Wimpey reported stronger than expected reservation rates for new homes in spite of the lockdown.”
According to the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) forecast, there would have been 160,901 private housing completions this year. This means that housing delivery would reach nearly 104,500 in 2020 leading to a drop of 56,000 new homes.