Homebuyer appetites for new-build properties have dipped by 0.1% while stock levels have fallen by 0.5%, data from easyMoney has revealed.
As part of its ‘New-build Sector Review’, a quarterly review of supply and demand within the sector, easyMoney examined buyer appetite for new-build homes alongside the level of supply being brought to the market by developers in 20 major British cities.
The latest figures for Q1 2024 showed that 19.1% of new-build homes listed for sale across Britain’s major cities had already found a buyer, marking a slight annual decline of 0.1%.
Southampton was the city with the highest level of new-build buyer demand, with 44.6% of properties already snapped up.
Demand was also impressively high in Bournemouth (36.4%), Portsmouth (27.6%), and Sheffield (27.3%).
However, it was Newport in Wales where buyer appetite for new-builds saw the largest annual jump, up 16.4% on the year, followed by Sheffield, up 9.1%.
In contrast, Plymouth has seen the biggest drop in demand of all 20 cities analysed by easyMoney, with demand down 11.8% year on year.
Despite the overall picture showing an annual decline in new-build demand, the quarterly figures suggest that the sector could be on the verge of a boom as we move further in 2024.
Across all 20 cities, new-build demand was up 1.8% since Q4 2023, with demand growing by 21.6% in Newport, 14.7% in Sheffield, and 5.8% in Southampton.
New-build stock levels fell during the first quarter of 2024; total new-build stock accounted for 7% of all market listings, an annual drop of 0.5%.
The nation’s strongest new-build stock supply has been found in Liverpool (13.8%), followed by Manchester (13%), Aberdeen (9.5%), Edinburgh (9.1%), and London (6.2%).
As for change in stock levels, Manchester led the way with annual growth of 2.2%, followed by Southampton (1.8%), and Liverpool (1%).
Nottingham (0.5%) and Swansea (0.1%) were the only other cities to have seen an annual increase in new-build supply.
The biggest annual stock reduction was recorded in Birmingham at 2.7%.
Britain’s overall stock levels were down on the quarter as well as the year, having fallen by 0.4% since Q4 2023.
Jason Ferrando, CEO of easyMoney, said: “We’re seeing positive signs that buyer demand is returning to the new-build market after a couple of difficult economic years, but it seems that a recent quarterly boost is not enough to ease the mind of housebuilders who are continuing to keep their cards close to their chest until they can have utmost confidence that demand is strong enough to justify opening the tap on new-build supply.
“Confidence is riding high in the UK property market at the moment.
“It has weathered a difficult storm and come out of the other side largely unscathed, so as the market starts to bustle into Spring and Summer, we fully expect new-build supply to start increasing.”
