Homebuilding hotspots of the nation revealed

Research by real estate debt advisory specialists, Sirius Property Finance, has revealed that Warwickshire, Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire rank as the nation’s housebuilding hotspots when it comes to the number of new homes built on an annual basis in relation to the total size of the property market. 

Sirius Property Finance analysed government housebuilding numbers for total permanent dwellings completed in 2020/21 across each county of England. They then looked at how this figure stacked up when compared to the wider context of housing market size, by comparing it to the total number of dwellings in each county to see where we’re really building the most. 

The latest figures show that across England, 155,950 new homes were built in 2020/21, equating to 0.63% of the nation’s property market. 

Regional house building hotspots

Regionally, the largest injection of new homes was seen in the South East, where 27,270 homes were built equating to 0.68% of the total property market. 

The East Midlands and East of England also saw some of the largest levels of homes built in the context of their respective property markets sizes. The 14,230 homes built in the East Midlands and the 18,310 built in the East of England both equate to 0.67% of total market size. 

Yorkshire and Humber saw the lowest level of new homes delivered on an annual basis in relation to the total size of the market. The 13,390 homes built across the region equate to just 0.54% of the total property market.

County level housebuilding hotspots

At a county level, Warwickshire has seen the biggest boost to the local property market in the way of new housing stock. The 3,050 homes built during 2020/21 is equivalent to a huge 1.16% of the existing property market.

Oxfordshire ranks second and is the only other county where annual housebuilding figures equate to more than one per cent of the existing market (1.15%). 

Cambridgeshire (0.99%), Buckinghamshire (0.95%) and Wiltshire (0.92%) also rank amongst the counties where we’ve been building the most. 

Managing Director of Sirius Property Finance, Nicholas Christofi, commented:

“The nation needs more housing and while some areas may have been marked as housebuilding hotspots, the real impact of this housing delivery can’t always be established based on top line completion figures alone.  

When viewing build completions against the wider context of overall market size, we can get a better idea of where has seen the biggest boost to the property market in terms of the number of new homes being delivered.”

Data on the number of permanent dwellings completed in 2020/21 sourced from Gov.uk - Live tables on housing supply: indicators of new supply. 

Note - Housebuilding data: The England total includes imputation for non-responding independent approved inspectors (which is only implemented at the national level), therefore regional totals do not necessarily sum up to equal national total

Data on the number of total dwellings sourced from Gov.uk - Live tables on dwelling stock.