Investing In Britain’s Housing Sector In 2018 Could Be Profitable, Indicates Economists’ Poll


01/26/2018

2018 comes with a positive outlook for Britain’s construction sector even though the designated hour of Brexit draws closer.



According to an “industry body”, the construction companies in Britain had experienced the “best year in decade” in 2017 for taking up work on “new homes”, whereby leaving a positive “outlook for 2018”.
 
In an attempt to cope up the “shortage of housing”, Britain’s Prime Minister, Theresa May, expressed her aim of increasing the “construction of new homes to rise to 300,000 a year”. As per the “National House-Building Council” there has been registration of “160,606 new homes” by the builders, whereby marking a 6% increment from the figures of 2016, while arriving at the “highest number” following the 2007 financial crisis.
 
On the completion front, the figure rose by 4% to “147,278”. Furthermore, Reuters added:
“British house-building halved after property prices fell by around a fifth during the financial crisis and has only risen slowly since, helped by government incentives to subsidise first-time buyers’ purchases of newly built homes”.
 
The housing rates last year began with a “slightly above the average of the past 45 years”, while failing to achieve “government targets”. Britain, however, did not experience boom in the “housing construction” sector before the financial crisis hit home. Likewise, rigid planning guides along with lack of worker skill contribute to the “key constraint”.
 
In the words of the Chief Executive of NHBC, Steve Wood:
“If the economy is sound, the housing market is sound. I know there is a bit of an argument about whether we are going to lag behind global growth. But if we are still going to get growth, we will get growth in housing as well.”
 
Reuters’ polls of economists show an average expectation of “economic growth of 1.4 percent in 2018”, although the figures appear weak in the “international standards”, they have emerged in a far better condition than the “gloomier forecasts” following the voting in favour of Brexit.
 
As per Wood, even though, many workers of construction industry who came “to Britain from eastern Europe” are not easily available, there has not been any lack of investment interest in the construction sector so far, even with the “scheduled departure” of Britain from the EU approaching in March 2019. As per Reuters:
“Housing starts rose by nearly 20 percent in Wales and parts of central England, and crept up by 1 percent in London - the first rise in the British capital since 2014”.
 
 
References:
reuters.com