House building 'decreased in 2009'

19 February 2010

Written by Steve Olejnik

Buy to let property owners may be interested in the latest house building statistics released by the government.

With regard to the period October to December 2009, the Department for Communities and Local Government revealed that housing completions had dropped by three per cent from the precious quarter.

Some 21,880 house building starts in England were noted. This was also a 12 per cent decrease from the same quarter in 2009.

Housing completions for the year were at 118,000, which is 17 per cent lower than the previous 12 months.

Commenting on the statistics, senior economist at the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors Oliver Gilmartin said they were "disappointing".

"An urgent re-assessment of the procurement route for bringing housing to market is critical as market mechanisms have clearly not worked over the last two decades," he advised.

Mr Gilmartin explained that the number of housing completions last year were at their lowest since 1947 in England.

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