The number of homes submitted for planning in the UK nearly doubled in the fourth quarter of 2017, as residential planning activity bounced back from a weak Q3, according to EG’s UK Planning Update.
Proposals for a total of 459,132 homes across 9,616 applications were submitted between October and December – up from just 236,001 the quarter before.
The increase followed the government’s pledge in the Budget to deliver 300,000 new homes a year.
Although Q4 was the strongest quarter of 2017, only 1,101 applications at the time of writing were approved, totalling just over 25,000 homes, with the vast majority waiting for a decision.
Plans for about 3,600 homes were rejected.
London was an exception at the end of the year, the number of proposed homes falling 9.4% quarter-on-quarter to 55,594, compounding a 23% dip the quarter before.
However, overall the fourth quarter was a return to the norm for both commercial and residential activity. Number for both were within 5% of their long-term average.
By contrast, commercial applications in Q3 had outperformed the average since 2015 by more than 25%, while residential applications underperformed by more than 17%.
Figures for all applications are expected to rise marginally in the coming weeks as the final deals filter through.
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