"When you think of a new-build property, more often than not a flat is going to spring to mind. No surprise really as they account for the largest proportion of British new-build stock in the current market. But this varies from city to city."
Research by the new-build sales optimisation platform, Unlatch, has revealed how the new-build market looks based on the diversity of stock currently available to buyers and how this differs across our major cities.
Unlatch analysed the level of new-build stock currently on the market before dissecting it by property type both at national level and across 20 major cities.
Despite flats making up 41% of the total new-build stock, the pandemic influence for larger homes is also clear, with detached homes accounting for 28% of new-build stock.
Semi-detached and terraced homes account for 15% and 10% of available new-build stock respectively, while bungalows are the rarest new-build property type accounting for just 6% of available properties.
Stock differences across major cities
However, the DNA of the new-build market can differ depending on where in the nation you’re looking and certain property types are far more prevalent in some cities compared to others.
For example, the new-build market in major urban hubs such as London (94%), Manchester (90%) and Birmingham (84%) is almost completely dominated by flats with the property type accounting for almost all new-build homes on the market.
In contrast, flats account for just 5% of the market in Sunderland, with Newcastle (8.3%) and Swansea also seeing flats account for less than 10% of the total new-build stock.
In fact, in Swansea (64%), Sunderland (55%) and Newcastle (54%), more than half of all new-build properties available to purchase are detached homes - the highest level of detached new-builds of all cities analysed.
Sunderland (24%) and Newcastle (22%) also rank in the top three where the highest level of semi-detached new-build stock is concerned, although at 27% Portsmouth has the largest availability of this property type.
Portsmouth also ranks top for terraced new-build stock levels at 27%, with Bristol (26%) and Bradford (23%) this time making the top three.
Finally, Bungalows may not be the first thing that springs to mind when you think about new-builds and in many major cities, you’d be forgiven as there isn’t a single new-build bungalow on the market.
However, in Swansea, they account for 9% of all new-build stock currently on the market, with Bournemouth (7%) and Leicester (5%) also home to some of the highest levels of new-build bungalow availability.
Lee Martin, Head of UK for Unlatch, says: “The creation of any new-build developments will always focus on a number of factors including lifestyle, available space and of course profit margins.
"This is a fine balancing act but more often than not flats, detached and semi-detached homes will be the flavour of choice.
"In many built-up major cities where space is tight, flats tend to dominate as building upwards rather than outwards allows more homes to be delivered to market.
"But the sector is far from a one-trick pony and, in other markets such as Swansea and Bournemouth for example, there is a far more diverse range of stock to suit the different buyer demographics within the market.”
