Recent research by planning consultancy Turley suggests there is going to be a homes shortfall of 45,340 in the North West of England in the next 5 years. Looking at the issue nationally, only the East Midlands need to build more homes than the North West.
So what does a homes shortfall in the North West of England mean?
It’s back to that old supply and demand problem. The research suggests that over 191,000 homes will be required in the North West. However, as highlighted earlier the figures suggest this target will be missed. So less homes increases the demand as more people will be enquiring about the same property. This, unfortunately, may put pressure on affordable housing schemes. Driven by market demand rents may rise as well as sale prices.
This isn’t a position we really want to be in following the credit crunch and the collapse of the housing market when it happened several years ago. It will also put pressure on employers to raise incomes which could add to inflationary pressures.
We need affordable homes to alleviate this shortfall in the North West
As I have mentioned in a previous post about bringing empty properties back into use there is a need to have affordable homes available to purchase and rent. There will be a lot of head scratching being done both in the government and by various commentators to find out how we solve the supply of affordable housing.
As a free market economy ultimately prices are decided based on supply and demand. So if there is no effort made to redress this imbalance we could see the housing market start to bubble up again.
What are your thoughts about the homes shortfall? Do you think enough is being done to ensure affordable homes are being made available? Let us know.
