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ONS construction data - November 2022

ended 13. January 2023

This morning, the latest construction data was published by the ONS. Key points below. Any thoughts, send them over ASAP. This story id BREAKING.

  • Monthly construction output is estimated to have flat growth (0.0%) in volume terms in November 2022; this follows a downwardly revised increase of 0.4% in October 2022.
  • The flat growth in monthly construction output in November 2022 came from a decrease in new work (0.4% fall), offset by an increase in repair and maintenance (0.6%) on the month. 
  • At the sector level, the main positive contributors to the flat growth were seen in infrastructure new work and non-housing repair and maintenance, which increased 4.2% and 2.4%, respectively; the main negative contributors were seen in private new housing and private housing repair and maintenance, falling 4.8% and 1.7%, respectively.

2 responses from the Newspage community

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Justin Moy
Managing Director at EHF Mortgages
With the prospect of falling property prices across the UK, and the end of Help to Buy, new build developments will be one of the first sectors to be hit, and inevitably developers will be looking to slow down the release of properties until prices stabilise, as do mortgage rates. There has been a January bounce in some parts of the country, however, the number of incentives on offer has significantly increased in a bid to make new builds still attractive. As a result, we expect to see construction output to fall throughout 2023 until the economy settles sufficiently.
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Gary Bush
Financial Adviser at MortgageShop.com
Construction output has always slowed at times of turbulence, this period will be no different - builders will be taking stock and performing general housekeeping to allow them to gauge the market and their pricing strategies.
We are a strong believer that builders need to get back to a more normal and value-filled process, post Help to Buy ending. Help to Buy only brought additional house price inflation and, in our opinion, poor value for money for property buyers.
It's clear that with the massive shortage of properties in the UK the buyers are still out there as has become clear with the evidence of good activity so far for January.