Scotland’s home builders welcomed official statistics showing a 3 per cent increase in new house building for 2017-18 (17,731) compared with the previous year (17,293) but highlighted a mixed picture in the detail of the figures, with 16 per cent fewer (532) private sector-led homes completed in Q1 2018 compared with the same quarter in 2017. With the private sector playing a key role in assisting the Scottish Government to meet new homes.
First time buyers now fall into two categories: millennial young professionals who are renting for longer and are very discerning about where they want to live. Then there is a second, important category of first time buyers: many already have children by the time they buy their first home, which impacts the kind of home they are looking for.
“Our recent survey with the NHBC found almost a third of first time buyers who had purchased a new home after the four years already had children and were buying a home with more than three bedrooms.” its ambitious affordable housing targets, Chief Executive at representative body Homes for Scotland (HFS) Nicola Barclay said: “We are encouraged to note these latest statistics indicate a positive overall picture for affordable housing approvals as well as the wider sector. Whilst the extreme weather conditions earlier in the year made delivery challenging, it is essential that we are not complacent when it comes to our efforts to increase supply across all tenures.”
Source: s1homes Fife magazine October edition