New housing starts jumped 46% in April compared with the same period last year, according to the latest figures from the National House Building Council.
The NHBC reported that 16,826 applications to build houses were made in April 2002, compared with 11,511 in 2001. Private housing starts rose 49% to 14,795 and housing association applications jumped 29%.

The NHBC said that although some of the increase could be attributed to lower than usual starts last April, starts in the first four months of 2002 were 16% ahead of the same period last year.

NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said the market appeared to be “exceptionally buoyant”.

Completions for April were up 11% on the same period last year at 13,081.