Housing Demand to Top Supply by 500,000 Units

Demand for new housing will outstrip supply by over half a million units by 2015 which is equivalent to the size of Birmingham. This is startling conclusion from a new report, 'Tackling the Housing Crisis', from the Federation of Master Builders (FMB). The report also reveals that the number of small house builders is at the lowest since 1982 because of escalating costs and regulatory burdens. Brian Berry, Director of External Affairs at the FMB said: For too long the housing problem has been overlooked with the result that a person buying a house on their own now needs to be near the top 10% of earners in the country and this problem is only going to get worse until the Government takes drastic action to revive private house building. While bank lending is a massive problem so is the Government’s failure to reduce the burden on house builders that continues to make many developments too expensive to build, especially for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).” Download a copy of the report from the FMB website.