"It takes time to build up new communities, but areas like South Derbyshire, Harborough, and Dartford are racing to prominence with a raft of new properties"
South Derbyshire has embraced new stock more than any other area of England, according to newly released research from Searchland.
According to the findings, across the area, properties built in the past 10 years make up 17% of overall housing stock, far in excess of the English average of 6.0%.
Hot and cold spots
Other areas with a plentiful supply of new property are Harborough in Leicestershire (14.9%), as well as Dartford in Kent (14.9%).
Stratford-upon-Avon, a medieval market town known as the birthplace of William Shakespeare, is also embracing new homes, which make up 14.8% of the total.
In other regions, new builds are having less of an impact, which could be due to a lack of space, political initiative, and/or nimbyism from existing homeowners.
Places where new build completions make up the lowest percentage of stock in England are Brighton and Hove (1.2%), Adur in West Sussex (1.4%), and Kingston upon Thames in southwest London (1.5%).
New build leaders by volume
Wiltshire, an area known for the prehistoric Stonehenge monument, has produced the most newly built dwellings in the past decade across England.
Around 22,100 new homes have been built in the local authority area in the past 10 years, bolstering overall stock to 228,000.
In second place is the picturesque North Yorkshire, at 21,300, bringing stock to 302,500.
Then comes Somerset, another area known for rural communities, which added 20,540 homes to bring the total to 267,400.
At the other end of the spectrum is the built-up City of London (350), the Sussex local authority district of Adur (390) and the seaside town of Hastings (690), all of which have seen scant new housing in the past decade.
Regional overview
The South West of England has welcomed the most new stock in the past decade, at 7.0% of the total amount.
After that comes the East Midlands (6.8%), and then the East of England (6.8%).
It’s particularly rare to find a property under 10 years old in both Yorkshire and The Humber (5.0%) and the North West (5.0%), suggesting those regions could do more to boost supply.
Co-founder and CEO of Searchland, Mitchell Fasanya, commented: “It takes time to build up new communities, but areas like South Derbyshire, Harborough, and Dartford are racing to prominence with a raft of new properties.
"Modern stock tends to be more energy efficient than older fare, which is helpful in keeping bills down. For aspiring landlords you’ll also need to have an EPC level above C to let out a property from 2028, so it’s becoming more important than ever to have a greener property.
"New builds tend to cost something of a premium, but if you’re a second or third buyer of a modern property you may be able to avoid that downside altogether.
"At the other end of the spectrum are areas like Brighton, where just 1.2% of its stock is less than 10 years old. Clearly more needs to be done to build homes in these places, as without new stock there’s more of a likelihood that demand will run away from supply and make areas more expensive.
"Depending on the types of homes being built they can enhance a region with new architecture that sits neatly alongside historic infrastructure. That’s clearly the view that’s being taken in Stratford-upon-Avon, which demonstrates that new and old properties can coexist, bringing more residents and economic activity to an area.”
