See below for the full PDF version of the Construction Review Q1 2008 

It is clear from walking the streets of Britain’s cities that the days of high rise living are returning and research using Barbour ABI data has put numbers to this changing residential topography, underlining just how dramatic the change has been.

The new research for the annual Housing Market Intelligence report shows a vast increase in the numbers of homes planned in buildings of 10 or more floors.

The study looked at a large sample taken from the Barbour ABI database of residential projects given planning consent in the years 2000 to 2006.

Not surprisingly it found that the average height of housing projects hadn’t risen that much over the timeframe, because there are a large number of small low rise projects. The figures show that the average project is still below four storeys. But when the research examined individual homes given planning permission and the storey heights of the projects they are in, the picture was very different. In 2000 the average storey height associated with a planned new home was 3.75. In 2006 this figure was 5.56, and in the years 2002 and 2005 the average storey height rose above six.

Put simply, if you buy a new home that gained planning permission in 2002 or 2005 the chances are the building will be more than six storeys high, compared with below four for homes planned in 2000. The reason for this leap lies very much in the planning legislation that has called on homes to be built at higher densities and Government figures suggest that the density of new homes built has risen from 25 homes per hectare in the run up to the millennium to 40 per hectare today and this has led to buildings of increasing height.

The solution is to build upward and the Housing Market Intelligence research clearly underlines that this is the response of housebuilders and developers. It shows that in 2000, of the sample taken of residential projects given planning permission, 4.1% of homes were in buildings of 10 or more storeys and 16.3 homes in buildings of more than 5 storeys. In 2005 these figures had increased to 12.1% and 24.4% respectively. Indeed in 2005 the proportion of homes recorded in buildings above 5 storeys rose to 35.3%. The research acknowledges that not all projects given planning permission will be built out, so the homes finally built may not stick to the pattern suggested by the data. But the trend is clear, housebuilders and residential developers have put to one side any fears of high-rise homes.

This article was written by Brian Green, editor of Housing Market Intelligence The Housing Market Intelligence 2007 report was launched on October 9th at the HMI conference in London For more details: www.housingmarketintelligence.com

Construction Review Q1 2008 PDF