New house building: October to December 2024
A quarterly report which includes information on new dwellings started (where building work has commenced) and new dwellings completed (where building work has finished and the dwelling is ready for occupation), for October to December 2024.
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In this page
Introduction
The information is based on the reports of local authority building inspectors and the National House Building Council (NHBC). Tenure data should be treated with caution (see notes).
Main points
Figure 1: Number of new dwelling starts and completions, Quarter 3 2015-16 to Quarter 3 2024-25
Description of Figure 1: A line chart showing that between Quarter 3 2015-16 and Quarter 3 2024-25, the number of new dwelling starts has fluctuated between 615 and 2,141 while the number of new dwelling completions has fluctuated between 938 and 2,066.
Source: Local authority building inspectors and NHBC data
[Note 1] Quarterly data was not collected for 2020-21 or 2021-22 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
[Note 2] Estimated figures have been included for Bridgend for Quarter 3 2024-25.
(r) Number of new house building completions for Quarter 2 2024-25 has been revised slightly from 938 to 944.
Between October and December (Quarter 3) 2024, 760 new dwellings were started, 59% fewer than the same quarter of 2023 (which was the highest quarterly figure since 2016). The number of starts was the second lowest quarterly figure during the past decade.
Between October and December 2024, 1,269 new dwellings were completed, 18% fewer than the same quarter of 2023 (1,543).
More than two thirds (69%) of new dwellings completed between October and December 2024 contained three or more bedrooms.
New dwellings completed by tenure
This split should be treated with caution as it is believed to include an undercount of social sector builds and an overcount of private sector builds. Within the social sector, there may be an overcount of Registered Social Landlord (RSL) builds and an undercount of local authority builds (see notes).
Between October and December 2024, most new dwelling completions were accounted for by the private sector (75%), with a smaller proportion accounted for by RSLs (18%) and local authorities (7%).
Compared to the same quarter of 2023, the proportion of dwelling completions accounted for by the social sector increased from 18% to 25%.
Notes
Due to rounding, some figures may not add up to 100%.
This data is based on the reports of local authority building inspectors and the National House Building Council (NHBC) a private approved inspector. It does not include information from other private approved inspectors. It is sometimes difficult for building control officers and NHBC to identify the intended final tenure of the property (the basis for the tenure information). This may lead to an under-count for the social sector and an over-count for the private sector. Within the social sector it may also lead to an under-count of local authority new house building and an over count of RSL house building. Therefore, the tenure data should be treated with caution.
Both starts and completions will be influenced by quarterly fluctuations, including the timing of starts and completions on large sites in some authorities and seasonal factors such as holidays and weather. These statistics are not seasonally adjusted.
We also publish separate statistics on affordable housing provision. The figures cover all additional affordable housing units, whether through new build, purchase, acquisition, leasing or conversion of existing dwellings.
The main points and StatsWales data (new house building) are published quarterly and a report is published annually. The information published on StatsWales includes local authority level data as well as the number of new dwellings completed by dwelling type and number of bedrooms.
