New homes start to slow

Housing starts and sales were significantly down in July, according to figures from the National House Building Council.

But the Council says it is too early to detect a significant downward trend.

In all there were 12,570 applications made to start new homes, down 9 per cent on the same month last year. Most of the starts (11,450) were in the private sector, which fell 4 per cent on last year.

Further depressing news was revealed in the number of new- home sales, which fell 9 per cent to an average of 592 new homes sold each day during July.

A spokeswoman for the NHBC admitted that figures for both the second quarter and July had shown a decline but warned against reading too much into the figures.

Figures for 1997 and the first quarter of 1998 showed general stability but a low level of growth. The Council is awaiting third quarter results before it draws any conclusion on trends.

Broken down by region, the south east showed one of the most significant drops. New- house starts and sales in the region were down 13 per cent with 3,449, against 3,981 last year. Hertfordshire was up 68 per cent at 372 but Kent was down 58 per cent at 218.

Elsewhere, North Yorkshire was up 112 per cent with 180 new homes registered as against 85 last year.

But the south west registered a 14 per cent drop.