Housing market recovery is ‘spreading’
11/09/2013
Housing developer Barratt’s has claimed the recovery of the housing market is “spreading beyond London and the South East,” supporting claims from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics), who have also maintained a similar increase in the housing market outside of London and the South East is evident.
Barratt Development posted pre-tax profits of £104.8 million for the year end of June 2013, a rise of £4.8 million for the previous year, whilst its average selling price rose a staggering 7.9% from £180,500 to £194,800 per new home.
One factor that seems to have helped these figures is the launch of a host of government initiatives aimed to help boost the housing market which include the FirstBuy, NewBuy and Help to Buy schemes. This has led to the developer claiming that significant progress has been made in the market and the availability of finance for customers and the capacity for mortgage providers to lend has “slowly improved.”
Barratt are now expecting to build a further 45,000 homes over the next three years alone in response to the potential recovery of the housing market, with lending now at its highest levels since the beginning of the financial crisis. However, these lending levels are still below pre-recessionary levels, and whilst the number of homes for sale has increased over the last month, the market is still failing to match demand.
Therefore, whilst caution should still be executed within what is still a potentially volatile market, the economic recovery looks to be serving the housing market particularly well and could be a worth while investment.
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