20,700 houses and apartments sold in Brixton, Only 5.4% New Builds

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5.4% of all Properties Sold in Brixton are New Builds

Brixton residents might be surprised that only 5.4% new builds were sold in Brixton, when new builds seem to be everywhere!

New development completed this year on the site of a former council office, which offers 94 new homes in the centre of Brixton, 40% are affordable (34 social rent and 14 shared ownership). New builds also arisen on Coldharbour Lane, St Matthew’s, Acrelane…

I did some research, since 1995 there were 20,700 houses and apartments sold in Brixton, 1180 of those have been new homes, representing 5.4% of property sold.

So, I wondered how that compared to both the regional and the national picture …and from that, the pertinent questions are: are we building too many new homes or are we not building enough?

Roll the clock back a few years and in 2013 the Government expressed its disappointment that, as a Country, builders weren’t building enough new homes to house our citizens! They promised to hasten new homes building to the fastest rate since the 1980’s when the Country was building on average 168,100 private households a year 😉

The Housing Minister stated he wanted the private sector to build in excess of 180,000 households a year, a figure which seemed unachievable at the time. In 2013, private house building was in the depths of a post Credit Crunch dip, with just 96,550 private new homes being built that year.

Yet, in the five years since then, private new-build completions have climbed steadily, rising by 59.5% to 154,100 new home completions in 2018.. so, on appearances alone, whilst the growth is impressive, the new homes builders haven’t met their targets….. or have they?

In addition to the 154,100 new homes completions in 2018, the private sector also provided an additional 29,700 new households gained from change of use between office, industrial and agricultural buildings to residential homes meaning, last year, the private sector created 183,800 new households. When we look at the public sector, there were 30,300 Housing Association new homes and 2,950 Council houses built last year, meaning after making a few other minor adjustments, the total number of new households/dwellings created in the UK in 2018 was 222,190.

Most of the growth can be credited to an improving economic framework, though continued help for first time buyers with the Help to Buy Scheme has enabled some younger buyers to bypass the issue of saving for a large deposit for a mortgage when buying a home, thus supporting confidence among new home builders to commit to large building schemes. Yet there is more to do. The Government wants the Country to return to the halcyon days of the 1960’s where, as a Country, we were building 300,000 additional homes a year .. and they want that to happen by 2025, a 36% increase from current levels.

In 2019, the country will create 257,500 households, so we are on our way to meeting that target but maintaining this level of house building will be a test. Even the Governments’ Auditors (the Office of Budget Responsibility) is predicting net additional dwellings will plateau at about 240,000 in the first few years of the next decade.

So, how does Brixton sit within this framework?

The UK currently has 27.2m households, of which 2.45m (9%) of those have been built since 1995, whereas in Brixton, of the 25,400 households in SW2, 1,180 were built since 1995 (representing 4.6% of all households), meaning Brixton has a lower proportion of new homes building in the last couple of decades than the national figures.


Matylda Nowak
AUTHOR OF BRIXTON PROPERTY BLOG, CEO, Kings Accommodation

Matylda Nowak

My name is Matylda Nowak I am an author of the Brixton Property Blog and in-demand industry trainer.
I am passionate about properties, most likely because I understand this industry from every angle, I was a tenant, landlord, vendor, buyer, investor, I am also running lettings management and sales agency
This also gives me experience which has given me opportunity to see all sides of the property business which is quite helpful when it comes to take an action.
London has several interesting areas, with South London providing a fantastic range of property and rental options. I fell in love with Brixton in 2006 when I have moved to one of London’s most popular go-to area. I will be posting here for you on a regular basis the price guides, conveyancing, surveys, mortgages, rental yields and vital latest property information, property legislations and compliance so please follow Brixton Property Blog if you would like to stay updated.
I love helping people achieve their dreams and helping them work through key obstacles, so that they can live life on a whole new level, we all deserve it!
I help YOU invest without the stress
So if you are looking for a property advise or find yourself overwhelmed by the amount of work or knowledge you have to know with all of the recent changes in Property Legislation, please do not hesitate to contact me. I have over a decade of experience in properties, I have done it for myself and for many of our landlords and I will be happy to help you too.
Matylda Nowak
Local Property Expert

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