UK Housing Stock

UK housing stock is falling behind European and OECD counterparts, new HBF research finds

Stancliffe Homes is a proud member of the UK House Builders Federation and we are always following the research they carry out. A new HBF report, published today, has established just how far the UK has fallen behind its European and OECD counterparts with regards to the condition, affordability, and age of its housing stock.

Through analysis of data from the OECD, European Union and UK Government, Housing Horizons: Examining UK Housing Stock in an International Context demonstrates the difficulties facing people trying to find a decent and affordable home.

The report has been covered by a range of media outlets including The Guardian, The Times, Sky News, and The Sun (print) and a summary of the key findings can be found below.

Availability

  • England has far fewer dwellings relative to its population than other developed nations we typically consider peers, with 434 homes per thousand inhabitants, significantly fewer than France (590), Italy (587) and the OECD average of 487.

  • This dearth of properties makes England the most difficult place in the developed world to find a home, with the rate of available properties per member of the population at less than 1%, the lowest rate of all OECD countries.

Age

  • The UK also has amongst the oldest housing in Europe, with 78% of homes having been built before 1980, compared with an EU average of 61%, and 38% of the UK’s housing stock being built before 1946, compared with an EU average of 18%.

Condition

  • 15% of English homes failed to meet the Decent Homes Standard in 2020. This is the highest proportion of substandard homes in Europe, and significantly higher than many other countries including Germany (12%), Bulgaria (11%), Lithuania (11%) and Poland (6%).

Ownership

  • Home ownership fell by seven percentage points to 65% in the 17 years to 2021, while over the same period home ownership grew in many nations including Italy (grew by 5.8 percentage points to 73.7%), the Netherlands (grew by 14.7 percentage points to 70.1%) and Slovakia (grew by 2 percentage points to 92.3%).

Affordability

  • The UK is a very unaffordable place to buy or rent a home, and increasingly so.

  • House prices in the UK have been growing faster than incomes and this disparity is greater than when compared to the EU benchmark.

  • In other European nations incomes have kept pace much better with house prices, such as in Belgium and France, or house prices have actually fallen slightly proportionally with income, such as in Finland, making both rental and purchase more affordable.

  • England is home to the largest number of people living in households that spend more than 40% of their income on housing in Europe, at 11.3 million.

  • This equates to one in five (20%) people living in households who are spending more than 40% of their income on housing costs, the second highest proportion in Europe, and 12 percentage points more than the EU average of 8%.

The report couldn’t make it clearer the housing issue in our country. We need to be high quality, energy efficient new homes at volume and Stancliffe Homes will look to play our (small) part in making this happen.

New homes we are currently building can be found in Bolsover on the outskirts of Chesterfield and Tansley, on the edge of the Peak District.

Sam Jones