Nick Millican Tags Housing Program End as Cause of Drops in Starts, Sales

Sales of private units, new starts and completion of sales on large schemes have fallen off in London over the past few months, as real estate expert Nick Millican explains. Industry analysts say that several factors for the trend are at play. This includes high-interest rates, construction costs and ending the Help to Buy Scheme.

When compared to starts in June of 2022, starts for the past 12 months have plunged by 11%. Completions were down by 21% and sales dropped off by 20%. High-profile real estate expert Nick Millican said a key reason for this multifaceted downward trend is the sunsetting of the Help to Buy Scheme. 

He said it’s been a significant driver of sales in recent years. Another trend to note is the increase in sales made by overseas purchasers. Nick Millican says that they’ve gone up over the previous six months. Furthermore, Build to Rent development has continued to be the largest source of demand for new homes. 

Nick Millican said that many housebuilders have reacted to falling markets by selling new homes to so-called affordable housing buyers. The successful and reliable real estate agent Nick Millican notes that about 1,150 market homes changed over to affordable housing in the first six months of 2023.

Affecting all this is the price of construction material. It actually dropped between May or June of 2023, although the stabilization of prices has remained steady since the spring of 2022. There has been a very slight rise in construction material costs of 0.01% over the past year. That’s the smallest annual jump since December of 2022, Nick Millican said.

Sales of private units, new starts and completion of sales on large schemes have fallen off in London over the past few months, as real estate expert Nick Millican explains. Industry analysts say that several factors for the trend are at play. This includes high-interest rates, construction costs and ending the Help to Buy Scheme.…