Latest UK housing starts and completions figures

ONS publishes quarterly data on housing starts and completions carried out by private enterprises, housing associations and local authorities across the UK.

Data is collected from a range of sources, including local authority new build form returns, National House Building Council (NHBC) data, approved inspector data returns, Scottish Government Affordable Housing Supply Programme, and District Council Building Control in Northern Ireland.

Housing starts up overall in UK

Housing starts in the UK increased in the first quarter of 2024, with 29,820 starts recorded in the latest provisional data from ONS. This was up by 25.0% on the number of dwellings started in the previous quarter, but 33.6% less than the number of starts in 1Q2023.

England accounted for 75.6% of all starts in the UK (23,730), 75% of which were by private enterprises. The number of private enterprise starts (17,770) was up by 40.3% on the previous quarter.

England saw an historically high number of housing starts in 2Q2023 but, since then, starts have been the lowest they have been since the first pandemic lockdown in 2020.

In Wales, the number of starts in 1Q2024 decreased by 67.0% from 4Q2023 and by 39.8% when compared to the same period last year. Scotland saw a 0.8% decrease on a quarterly basis and a 1% drop on the year, while Northern Ireland showed an annual increase of 16.2% and remained static in comparison to the previous quarter.

All dwellings starts

^{Source: ONS – House building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Table 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

^{Source: ONS – House building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Table 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

On the completions side, a total number of 38,400 dwellings were completed in 1Q2024, which was 24.9% less than in the previous quarter, and 14.8% down on completions in 1Q2023.

All parts of the UK saw quarterly decreases in 1Q2024 and only Wales and Northern Ireland had annual increases.

All dwellings completions

^{Source: ONS – House building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Table 1b}

In England, of the 31,670 dwellings completed in 1Q2024, 70% were by private enterprises. Housing associations were responsible for 8,400, or just over one in four completions, while local authorities accounted for 3%.

Compared to pre-Covid building activity in England, completions were down 13.3% on 1Q2020.

^{Source: ONS – House building, UK: permanent dwellings started and completed by country, Table 1a, 1b, 1c, 1d, 1e}

Chief Economist at BCIS, Dr David Crosthwaite said: ‘While the uptick in starts on a quarterly basis is some positive news, the remaining set of data confirm what we already knew about housing delivery this year.

‘Starts on an annual basis are down and completions have fallen, both on an annual and quarterly basis. Housing provision is subject to market forces and until the wider economic picture improves, we are unlikely to see any major increases in supply.

‘However, the latest drop in the base rate, although small, might kick-start borrowing and eventually feed through to developers building.’

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