Affordable new home registrations in the UK hit the highest level in two decades last year, figures from the National House Building Council reveal.
The figures are the most up-to-date indication of new home constructions and represent around 80% of all new homes in the UK.
The NHBC recorded 42,120 new home registrations in 2018. This was a marginal increase on 2017’s 42,024 registrations, but well over double the number of affordable homes registered 20 years ago.
In 1998 there were just 16,410 affordable new homes registered, and a further 141,558 private sector home registrations.
Affordable homes made up 10% of the new home registrations that year. It has since jumped to 26% in 2018, with the number of affordable homes on a consistent rise.
Last year saw just 117,497 private sector homes.
Private sector new home registrations fell off a cliff in 2008 in line with the financial crisis.
As affordable registrations maintained during this period, the affordable proportion of total registrations peaked making up 36% in 2009.
Slow recovery from the private sector has since seen this share of total decline.
Of the regions, the South East saw the largest number of registrations, with 26,871 new homes. It also topped the regions for the number of affordable homes at 8,632, making up 32% of new homes.
London saw the largest proportion of affordable homes making up 42% of the total new homes registered. The capital had 6,788 affordable new home registrations and 9,281 private sector new home registrations.
NHBC chief executive Steve Wood said: “The full-year figures of nearly 160,000 new home registrations demonstrate the resilience of the UK house-building industry. 2018 has been a demanding year, with the extreme weather conditions in the early part and the continuing political and economic uncertainties, which are extending into 2019.”
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