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House builder increases social housing completions to help offset ‘weak demand’ for private sales
A large house builder has increased construction of social homes to help offset weak demand for private sales.
Bellway’s social housing completions increased to around 25% of total completions in the year that ended on 31 July 2023, up from 18% in 2022. The builder told Inside Housing that social completions “will remain at an elevated level through FY24”.
By comparison, in a typical year for Bellway, social housing would form between 18% and 20% of total completions.
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The builder expects the proportion of social completions “to start trending down towards this from FY25 onwards”.
In its trading update for the year ending 31 July, Bellway said customer demand for homes had been affected by volatility in mortgage interest rates and cost of living pressures.
The overall reservation rate was 28.4% lower than the previous year, at an average of 156 per week, compared with 218 in 2022.
The builder said its programme of “accelerating the construction of social homes partially offset weaker private demand, which was impacted by higher mortgage rates and the end of Help to Buy”.
Bellway said more information would be provided at its preliminary results announcement on 17 October.
It reported housing revenue of £3.4bn for the financial year, compared with £3.5bn in 2022, and 10,945 total housing completions, compared with 11,198 in the previous year.
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