By New research has revealed how the new-build market looks based on the diversity of stock currently available to buyers and how this differs across our major cities.
The new-build sales optimisation platform, Unlatch, analysed the level of new-build stock currently on the market before dissecting it by property type both at national level and across 20 major cities.
When we think new-build, we tend to think flats, so it’s hardly surprising that they account for the largest proportion of British new-build stock in the current market.
41% of total stock to be exact, although the pandemic influence for larger homes is also clear, with detached homes accounting for 28% of new-build stock.
Semi-detached and terraced homes account for 15% and 10% of available new-build stock respectively, while bungalows are the rarest new-build property type accounting for just 6% of available properties.
Stock differences across major cities
However, the DNA of the new-build market can differ depending on where in the nation you’re looking and certain property types are far more prevalent in some cities compared to others.
For example, the new-build market in major urban hubs such as London (94%), Manchester (90%) and Birmingham (84%) is almost completely dominated by flats with the property type accounting for almost all new-build homes on the market.
In contrast, flats account for just 5% of the market in Sunderland, with Newcastle (8.3%) and Swansea also seeing flats account for less than 10% of the total new-build stock.
In fact, in Swansea (64%), Sunderland (55%) and Newcastle (54%), more than half of all new-build properties available to purchase are detached homes – the highest level of detached new-builds of all cities analysed.
Sunderland (24%) and Newcastle (22%) also rank in the top three where the highest level of semi-detached new-build stock is concerned, although at 27% Portsmouth has the largest availability of this property type.
Portsmouth also ranks top for terraced new-build stock levels at 27%, with Bristol (26%) and Bradford (23%) this time making the top three.
Finally, Bungalows may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think about new-builds and in many major cities, you’d be forgiven as there isn’t a single new-build bungalow on the market.
However, in Swansea, they account for 9% of all new-build stock currently on the market, with Bournemouth (7%) and Leicester (5%) also home to some of the highest levels of new-build bungalow availability.
Lee Martin, Head of UK for Unlatch says:
“The creation of any new-build developments will always focus on a number of factors including lifestyle, available space and of course profit margins.
This is a fine balancing act but more often than not flats, detached and semi-detached homes will be the flavour of choice.
In many built-up major cities where space is tight, flats tend to dominate as building upwards rather than outwards allows more homes to be delivered to market.
But the sector is far from a one-trick pony and, in other markets such as Swansea and Bournemouth for example, there is a far more diverse range of stock to suit the different buyer demographics within the market.”
| Location | Detached NB stock % | Semi-detached NB stock % | Terraced NB stock % | Flat NB stock % | Bugalow NB stock % |
| London | 1% | 1% | 4% | 94% | 0.1% |
| Manchester | 1% | 5% | 5% | 90% | 0.1% |
| Birmingham | 3% | 6% | 7% | 84% | 0% |
| Liverpool | 8% | 7% | 3% | 82% | 0.5% |
| Leeds | 6% | 8% | 10% | 75% | 0.6% |
| Edinburgh | 13% | 4% | 9% | 74% | 0% |
| Bournemouth | 3% | 7% | 9% | 73% | 7.4% |
| Southampton | 14% | 12% | 6% | 67% | 1.8% |
| Glasgow | 20% | 8% | 15% | 57% | 0% |
| Bristol | 9% | 8% | 26% | 56% | 0.7% |
| Plymouth | 16% | 15% | 16% | 52% | 1.5% |
| Sheffield | 18% | 18% | 14% | 48% | 1.9% |
| Cardiff | 29% | 16% | 16% | 39% | 0% |
| Nottingham | 32% | 13% | 19% | 32% | 4.0% |
| Portsmouth | 18% | 27% | 27% | 27% | 0% |
| Bradford | 40% | 17% | 23% | 21% | 0% |
| Leicester | 45% | 18% | 20% | 11% | 5.3% |
| Swansea | 64% | 14% | 5% | 9% | 9.1% |
| Newcastle | 54% | 22% | 15% | 8% | 0% |
| Sunderland | 55% | 24% | 16% | 5% | 0% |
| Great Britain | 28% | 15% | 10% | 41% | 6% |
New-build stock levels based on an average taken from the major property portals including Rightmove, Zoopla, OntheMarket and Boomin – January 12th 2022.
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