A weekly news summary covering all aspects of the housebuilding industry. Available to members only.
Government News
Technical guidance published on the Code for Sustainable Homes
As the Code for Sustainable Homes comes into effect, the CLG have published a manual to set out the requirements for the Code, and the process by which a Code assessment is reached.
The Government has set the ambitious aim that all new homes will be zero carbon by 2016 and the Code will be the measure by which this target is assessed. The guidance aims to explain to Code Assessors, home builders, product manufacturers and consumers how the Code levels can be achieved.
Cost of achieving new Code for Sustainable Homes revealed
The average additional cost of achieving Level 3 of the new Code for Sustainable Homes will be around 3% more than the old standard of EcoHomes ‘Very Good', according to research published on behalf of English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation.
Researchers at Cyril Sweett, the cost consultants who produced the report, found that costs will range for different house types and technologies from an additional 0.4% to an additional 6.2%. The benefits of achieving Level 3 of the new Code will see a 25% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions per home, and water-usage savings of 21 litres per person per day, over an average home built to EcoHomes ‘Very Good'. The additional cost therefore should result in more efficient results and more sustainable homes.
Registration of developments under The Code for Sustainable Homes starts this month. The Government is likely to propose that from April next year all new housing will be rated under the Code as a stepping stone towards all new homes being zero carbon by 2016. English Partnerships and the Housing Corporation have already adopted Level 3 of the Code.
Design and Quality Strategy and Standards published by the Housing Corporation
These two publications set out the standards that developments funded through the Corporation's multi-billion pound 2008 National Affordable Housing Programme will need to meet.
The Design and Quality Strategy focusses on the importance of sustainability, the creation of mixed communities, the need for strong enforcement and the role of tenants in ensuring high quality design. The strategy:
Places a strong focus on better design - endeavouring to create an operating environment in which good design is encouraged and rewarded;
Commits the Corporation to continuing to incentivise higher standards as part of its assessment process
identifies how the Corporation will monitor outcomes and deal with poor performance.
The new Design and Quality Standards set out the Corporation's requirements and recommendations for all new homes which will receive Corporation funding, including:
a streamlined approach to standard setting - towards three core performance standards for the internal environment, external environment and sustainability;
homes stronger on sustainability - based upon achieving a minimum of the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3
specific additional standards for higher density family housing;
BME provision, supported housing and housing for older people.
Corporation invites applications from potential new partners
The Housing Corporation has published its pre-prospectus for the National Affordable Housing Programme 2008-11. This is the first time that the funding programme has covered a 3 rather than a 2 year regime. The pre-prospectus also outlines plans to allow for 5 year funding for sites of strategic importance as defined by the Regional Assemblies.
The pre-prospectus invites organisations who are interested in becoming Investment Partners to apply for pre-qualification. The Corporation wants to encourage a diverse, dynamic and efficient set of organisations in the market for grant, and will welcome new, high quality partnerships from different sectors and of different forms, particularly the private sector.
House prices have bounced back according to RICS
House prices bounced back as the market absorbed the first round of interest rate rises, says RICS' UK housing market survey published yesterday.
House prices rose for the seventeenth consecutive month in March with the pace of increase picking up for the first time in five months. 25.5% more Chartered Surveyors reported a rise than a fall in house prices, up from 24.8% in February.
The pace of increase remains above the long run average of 21.6% indicating that the housing market is still in rude health.
Record numbers of first-time buyers take out fixed-rate loans, says CML
Fears that interest rates could rise next month have led a record proportion of first-time buyers to opt for a fixed-rate mortgage, according to new data from the Council of Mortgage Lenders.
Data for February showed that 87% of first-time buyers chose a fixed-rate loan - up from the previous record of 84% in January, and 82% in the same month last year. February's data also showed that 70% of home movers also took out a fixed-rate deal, compared to 67% in the previous month. And overall, fixed-rate loans accounted for 76% of all loans for house purchase - returning to their highest-ever level last achieved in November 2005 when they also reached 76%.
Official Statistics confirm rise in single-person households
Figures released from the Office of National Statistics have shown that in 2005 there were 7 million people living alone, more than double the figure of 3 million in 1971.
They also showed that in the second quarter of 2006, 58% of men and 39% of women aged 20-24 lived with their parents, an increase of 8% since the same period in 1991.
Green homes have more appeal for buyers according to Nationwide
According to a recent study by Nationwide Building Society, the majority of UK homebuyers preferred a house with environmentally friendly features. Given the choice between two properties of a similar size and value, 82% of respondents claimed a house with features such as solar panels, had more of an influence on their decision to buy than attic rooms (68%), period features (63%) and walk-in wardrobes (62%).
As part of the research, respondents were also asked what is important to them when deciding on which area to live in. A pleasant neighbourhood was rated as important by almost all respondents (97%). In fact, location of a property is higher on the agenda than a good school catchment (41%) or the likelihood of future house price rises in the area (65%). Adequate parking facilities also factored highly with 89% of respondents.
Over half (54%) of those questioned believed the kitchen to be the most influential room of a house, when it comes to making a decision to buy. This was followed closely by the sitting room (30% of respondents). The bathroom was one of the rooms least likely to influence a purchase decision, with only 2% of the votes.
Proximity to countryside the key for homebuyers, says Halifax research
Location is king in the housing market and, as estate agents and property programmes alike will tell you, where your property is situated can have as significant a bearing on its value as factors such as size, age and style.
New research from Halifax Estate Agents has revealed that in monetary terms, around one in three buyers would pay up to £10,000 more for a property in a location they desired.
HBF lobbies south-east MPs to take action to avert homes shortage
HBF has sent out a letter to South East MPs to reinforce the industry position about PPS3 and housing supply to counteract a briefing sent out by the South East Regional Assembly arguing for Local Authorities to rely on unexpected windfall sites for housing supply.
Jo Turner