During February, 8,917 new homes were registered in the UK, compared to 7,788 in January. Of those, 3,289 were registered in the public sector (compared with 2,304 in January) – the highest since May 2010, when 3,795 new homes were registered.
The number of private sector registrations during February (5,628) rose compared to January as well (5,484), but was lower overall than the same month last year (6,736.)
NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: “The recent budget delivered a welcome boost to the housing industry with first time buyers given incentive to buy and housebuilders given incentive to build. The fact that the number of private sector registrations during February was down on 2010 figures suggests that many housebuilders this year were waiting to see what the budget – and indeed the key spring selling season – would bring.
“Certainly following this week’s announcement we are hopeful that this sense of caution will ease going forward. “
Figures for rolling quarter December 2010 – February 2011 (24,090) showed no material change on the same period a year ago (24,105).
NHBC statistics for the rolling quarter December 2010 – February 2011 show that private sector registrations were down 3% (to 16,101) when compared with the same period a year ago (16,669). Public sector registrations were up 7%, from 7,436 a year ago to 7,989 this quarter.
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