Market analysis by Unlatch, the new homes sales progression and aftercare platform for developers and house builders, reveals that British new-build house prices have increased by as much as 24% since last Christmas as a cost of living crisis and energy price rises fuel buyer appetite for more efficient brand new homes.
Last Christmas, the average price for a new-build home in Britain was £339,565. According to the latest available data, this has increased to £397,720, a rise of £58,156 or 17.1%.
The biggest regional new-build price increase is being reported in the North East, growing by 19.1% to £254,594, while an 18.8% increase in Wales leaves the average regional price at £311,152.
The North West has seen price growth of 18.6% while the South West (18.3%), West Midlands (18%), Yorkshire & Humber (17.8%), Scotland (17.6%), and the East Midlands (17.3%) have all experienced above average levels of growth.
At local authority level, nowhere has seen stronger annual house price growth since last Christmas than Orkney Islands where the average price of a new-build has grown by 23.8% to £293,015, while in High Peak, Derbyshire, new-build prices have increased by 20.5% and in West Lancashire, prices are up 20.4%.
A strong Scottish performance is again represented by Shetland Islands where prices are up 20.1% since last Christmas, while Thanet, Ken (19.9%), Hambleton, North Yorkshire (19.8%), St Helens, Merseyside (19.7%), and West Dunbartonshire (19.5%) have all performed particularly well.
On the other side of the coin, the worst new-build price performance has been reported in the City of Westminster where prices are down -4.7% since last December. It is the only part of Britain where new-build prices have declined. Other London areas are also on the list of worst-performers, with Camden (1.4%), Islington (3.3%), and Kensington & Chelsea (4.2%) all reporting limited growth.
Lee Martin, Head of UK for Unlatch said, “There is a real appetite for new-build homes in Britain. They offer greater energy efficiency in the middle of an energy crisis, they’re more accessible thanks to numerous buying schemes and developer incentives, and the process of buying is a lot simpler than existing properties because they tend to avoid the dastardly chains that can cause emotional and financial grief for so many buyers.
In fact, national developers have created their own help to buy scheme internally since the government’s version has ended in order to keep on helping homebuyers.
The North of England has performed particularly well since last Christmas. This is partly due to local prices being lower and therefore having more room to grow, but also because of an ongoing trend of increasing buyer demand in these parts of the country as buyers turn their backs on the high prices in the South in an attempt to make their hard-earned pound stretch further.”
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