Nine out of ten customers would recommend their builder
The latest National New Homes Customer Satisfaction Survey for the period from October 2022 to September 2023 has been published, revealing that 90% of customers would recommend their developer to a friend.
This is the fourth successive year of 90% or higher, with the survey also revealing that 87.5% of respondents were satisfied with the quality of their home.
The net promoter score – the percentage of promoters less the percentage of detractors – reached 44; two points up on 2023.
For a company to achieve 5-star levels of satisfaction is a significant achievement and shows the commitment from everyone within the organisation to the customer.
Stewart Baseley, Executive Chairman, Home Builders Federation
CIH publishes UK Housing Review
The Chartered Institute of Housing has published its latest assessment into housing need in England, reiterating that it is “reasonable to plan on the basis of achieving a total supply of at least 300,000 new homes annually”.
The UK Housing Review 2024 report also states that 60-70,000 of these new homes should be social rent units, with this figure rising to 90,000 by 2030.
The review also looks a ethnic inequalities in the industry, the condition of existing stock, and a review of the private housing market.
This year’s UK Housing Review is published at a crucial time: never has the need for more housing investment and a strategic approach to housing policy been as great.
I urge all political parties to engage with the wealth of information and analysis available in the UK Housing Review series.
Gavin Smart, Chief Executive, Chartered Institute of Housing
House prices spring up in March
Rightmove has published its house price index for March, revealing a 1.5% increase in the average property price during the month to £368,118 – higher than the usual increase of 1.0% in March and the biggest monthly rise for ten months.
The property website also reported a 13% increase in sales agreed when compared to March 2023; albeit the average time to find a buyer is 71 days; the longest at this time of year since 2019.
Meanwhile, official figures from the Office for National Statistics reveal a -0.6% decrease in house prices over the year to January, falling to £282,000 – however, this is an improvement on the -2.2% drop experienced in the twelve months to December 2023.
Labour promises to put planning reform at “the very centre” of economic vision
The shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that a Labour government would put planning reform at the heart of its economic policy, in a speech to business leaders this week.
Speaking at the annual Mais Lecture in London, Reeves described the planning system as “the single greatest obstacle to our economic success”, making land “costly and inefficiently utilised”.
“And it prevents housing from being built where it is most needed – contributing to ever-higher prices and falling rates of home ownership and constricting the growth of our most productive places,” she added.
Crest forecasts fall in 2024 completions
Developer Crest Nicholson has issued a trading update on the period from 01 November 2023 to 15 March 2024, predicting a -11% fall in completions in this financial year to around 1,800 to 2,000 homes.
The firm also said that it had become aware of defects on four schemes completed before 2019, which would need remediation at a cost of up to £15m.
Housing View 