New build home numbers 'could drop below 100,000 next year'

The number of new homes being built could fall below 100,000 in 2009, a new survey has revealed.

A recent downturn in the construction sector could push growth in private housing developments to a record low, according to the UK Construction Market Survey by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

The RICS also suggested that the significant decline in numbers will lead to the government falling short of its own targets.

RICS senior economist Oliver Gilmartin said that at current levels of production the number of new homes being built will "fall below 100,000 in the coming year".

"With finance for projects becoming increasingly difficult to obtain, the government's ambitious target of two million new houses a year by 2016 is likely to fall well short," he added.

Following the RICS' prediction of a continued fall in new homes being built, more and more people could consider a self build project as a means of getting on or moving up the property ladder.

In related news, Margaret Beckett has been appointed as the government's new housing minister.