Assetz chief says retail funds can solve housing crisis
Assetz Capital’s chief executive Stuart Law has claimed that although construction output is rising, “a perfect storm” of problems is brewing for the housing market, which specialist lenders with retail funds can help battle.
Law (pictured) welcomed data from the Office of National Statistics showing that monthly construction output grew by two per cent in volume terms from November to December 2021.
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However, he added that Brexit and the pandemic have impacted supply chains, and Brexit in particular has led to border delays on both goods and labour, rising costs and extra paperwork, pricing many buyers out of the housing market.
“While today’s figures show huge potential in the housing market, given complex structural issues including rising costs, shortages of raw materials and labour, and other pandemic-related delays to imports, we’re likely to see monthly construction figures bounce around for some time yet, rather than a consistent period of growth,” Law said.
“As house prices rise and living costs spiral, more and more aspiring buyers will find they are priced out of the market and at some point, that will hit demand which could create a perfect storm if we haven’t solved the structural issues with our housing market.”
Law added that structural issues in the housing market need to be fixed and solutions include leveraging the expertise of specialist lenders that are already bringing billions of pounds into the market from institutional and retail investors.
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“We need to make sure we have as many funding lines available to housebuilders as possible to allow them to finance projects in the face of current market challenges,” he said.
“This means government funding, but also leveraging the expertise of specialist lenders that are already bringing billions of pounds into the market from institutional and retail investors.
“Ultimately though, lowering build costs so we can build more houses is the only structurally-sound way to balance supply and demand, keep house price growth sustainable and ensure we don’t create a market facing dramatic cycles of boom and bust.”
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