A leading property consultant has warned that private developers and registered social landlords will struggle to build the extra homes demanded by the Barker report.

At a briefing on Monday, Richard Donnell, head of residential research at FPD Savills, said it would be difficult to 鈥渋ncrease output to the levels needed鈥�.

Falling house prices meant developers were not keen to expand production and RSLs lacked capacity, he said.

Kate Barker鈥檚 study of housing supply, published in March, called for an extra 146,000 homes a year.

Donnell said he did not think Barker鈥檚 target was 鈥渦nachievable鈥�.

But he added: 鈥淲e have to work out who we want to build this housing. The private sector is faced with falling prices and rising costs.

鈥淗ousing associations could fill a gap but, as an industry as a whole, can we really increase output to the levels needed? Probably not.鈥�

Donnell also forecast that the value of the average UK house would rise by just 2% in the next year.

Michael Hill, business development director at Countryside Properties, said: 鈥淚f the rate of production of homes for sale is going to slow down, the rate of supply of affordable housing will slow down.

鈥淭here is a big government increase in spending on affordable housing. That will be able, to an extent, to maintain supply.鈥�

Source

Housing Today