Better Weather May Provide Huge Summer Housing Boost

The need for more homes in Yorkshire and across the UK has been well-documented. However, the construction sector has been facing some significant tailwinds of late.

Indeed, a weather reference is no mere metaphor, with the exceptionally wet conditions over winter and early spring causing significant disruption to the housebuilding sector. Demand for construction products like roofing materials will have suffered as a result.

The National House Building Council (NHBC) has revealed just what impact this has had on output in the first quarter of 2024. Compared with the equivalent period of 2023, the number of new home registrations was down by 20 per cent, while completions fell by ten per cent.

Of course, construction rates have not just been hampered by weather. A weak mortgage market prompted by high interest rates and a struggling economy has not helped either.

However, developers will be aware that such a situation may fade away over the course of 2024 as inflation comes under control and the Bank of England eventually, but cautiously,  starts cutting rates. The fact that the UK is now out of a brief recession with strong first-quarter growth may also help significantly.

There are good reasons to think the summer may provide a strong bounce-back. Firstly, there is the more obvious point that work delayed by the weather will be picking up as the weather gets drier, unless the summer is unusually wet too. Hot and dry conditions could be a game-changer.

Secondly, NHBC CEO Steve Wood noted that even amid the difficult circumstances of the first quarter, there was a positive sign, as the number of new home registrations rose in each month, as well as being higher over the quarter than in the third and fourth quarters of 2023. He described the mood of homebuilders as “cautiously optimistic”.

After a grim few months in every sense, it could be the sun may soon be shining on the house-building sector, both literally and metaphorically.