According to the Office of National Statistics, the price of new builds dropped around 4% nationwide from May; however, prices were up by as much as 12% on an annual basis.
In England, the average price of a new build property was £268,703, compared to the average property value of £229,383. This represents a fall of 4.6% from May, but a rise of 9.2% from the same period last year. In London, the average price paid for a new build was £461,789, a 4.9% drop on a monthly basis but a 12.1% increase on year-ago levels.
In Wales, the average price was £178,598, 4.2% lower than in May but 3.9% higher than in June 2015.
According to the latest LSL Land & New Homes Index, which is based on a proportion of all new build valuations provided for lending purposes, while similar price rises were seen on a regional basis Greater London saw the highest price growth at 8.2%.
“As new build prices continue to rise it is clear that, despite initial concerns raised following the referendum result, there is strong demand for new builds and that in some regions prices have risen quite considerably across all property types,” said Shaun Peart, managing director of LSL Land & New Homes.
“What is clear from the figures generally, however, is that prices are rising and this is no doubt a reflection of the continued demand for property and the ongoing need for more homes to be built,” he continued. “What is encouraging is that as Gavin Barwell took on his new role as housing minister his immediate commitment has been to build 1 million homes which signals, yet again, that new homes are one of the hot topics on the political agenda.
“Yet while there is a clear desire to build there remains the undeniable problem of where to build – particularly in light of Barwell’s comment about Green Belt land, and also how we can improve the planning process. Its good news to hear that there was a 4% increase in the number of planning permissions granted in the first three months of 2016 but, from our perspective and that of the developers, there still remains the stumbling block of local authorities being unable to process the permissions as quickly as we’d like. Ultimately, it’s great news that we have the government ‘on our side’ but there is still some work to do to meet the demand for new homes that clearly everyone agrees is needed.”