A leading property consultant has warned that private developers and registered social landlords will struggle to build the extra homes demanded by the Barker report.

At a briefing on Monday, Richard Donnell, head of residential research at FPD Savills, said it would be difficult to “increase output to the levels needed”.

Falling house prices meant developers were not keen to expand production and RSLs lacked capacity, he said.

Kate Barker’s study of housing supply, published in March, called for an extra 146,000 homes a year.

Donnell said he did not think Barker’s target was “unachievable”.

But he added: “We have to work out who we want to build this housing. The private sector is faced with falling prices and rising costs.

“Housing associations could fill a gap but, as an industry as a whole, can we really increase output to the levels needed? Probably not.”

Donnell also forecast that the value of the average UK house would rise by just 2% in the next year.

Michael Hill, business development director at Countryside Properties, said: “If the rate of production of homes for sale is going to slow down, the rate of supply of affordable housing will slow down.

“There is a big government increase in spending on affordable housing. That will be able, to an extent, to maintain supply.”

Source

Housing Today