North East, East of England and London are new-build hotspots

Over the last year, 12% of all property transactions in Britain have been new-build homes, but this rises to 46% in Tower Hamlets.

North East, East of England and London are new-build hotspots

Regionally, the North East, London and the East of England are Britain’s new-build hotspots, with 14% of all property transactions being for brand new homes, according to research by property developer StripeHomes.

Over the last year, 12% of all property transactions in Britain have been new homes, but the London borough of Tower Hamlets ranks has seen new-builds amount for 46% of transactions.

Greenwich is the nation’s second highest ranking area for new-build transactions, accounting for 32% of all sales in the last year.

East Lothian, Vale of White Horse, Wokingham and South Derbyshire have also seen 30% or more property transactions attributed to the new-build sector.

Gosport has seen the lowest level, with just 0.16% of sales in the last year being new homes.

Blaenau Gwent, Hastings, Portsmouth and the Western Isles also saw less than 1% of sales attributed to new homes.

James Forrester, managing director of StripeHomes, said: “The new-build sector plays an incredibly important role in stimulating the national property market, in terms of both the availability of stock and its positive influence on house price growth.

"Particularly now, buyers are opting for new-build homes due to the fact that no one has resided there previously and so the risk around COVID-19 is far lower.

"In a much stricter climate, they also provide a more straight forward transaction in terms of actually moving in, and so we expect over the next year at least, new-build sales will grow in prominence.

"This new-build activity will help maintain the current momentum seen since the property market reopened on a longer-term basis.

"So regions with an above-average level of new-build transactions, such as the North East, London and the East of England, should see a more buoyant market performance despite the wider pandemic when compared to regions such as Yorkshire and the South West."