According to The National House-Building Council (NHBC), applications to start building new homes fell by almost a third in Q1 2008 due to a “toughening market”.

The statistics released by NHBC showed in the first three months of the year 37,839 applications for new homes were submitted. For the same period last year 53,717 applications were submitted, which is a drop of 15,878 or approximately 30%.

The figures also showed a decrease in the number of completions during this period. In Q1 2007 the number of completions were 40,996 compared to this year where the number dropped to 35,205, a fall of 5,791 or approximately 14%.

The statistics provided by NHBC follows the announcement by The Office of National Statistics (ONS), that the value of new homes being built in Britain had reached a seven-year low. Over recent weeks home builders have been reporting a fall in demand for new homes, with one developer, Persimmon, announcing that they were putting all new developments on hold until the mortgage market improves.