Vale of Clwyd AM, Ann Jones, has welcomed statistics released showing that the Welsh housing market is turning a corner.
Ms Jones said: “These new figures show that more and more new homes are being completed to provide safe and sustainable houses for families.
“Despite protestations from the Tories and some irresponsible housebuilders who care only about amassing huge profits, these statistics show that we are making headway in building more new homes.
“I’m particularly pleased that these new homes will have sprinklers fitted as a result of my Domestic Fire Sprinklers Measure and will give greater fire safety and sustainability to our housing stock”.
On an annual basis, more new dwellings were started in 2012-13 than in 2011-12. This increase has continued into 2013-14 with more starts recorded in each quarter of the year than in the previous two years. During October to December 2013-14 there were 1,305 new dwellings started, up by 6 per cent on the same quarter of 2012-13.
Completions have increased during the first three quarters of 2013-14. During October to December 2013-14 there were 1,560 dwellings completed, which is a 6 per cent increase compared to the same quarter in 2012-13.
During the October to December quarter 2013-14, private sector completions were up by 10 per cent on the previous year at 1,401 dwellings. Over the financial year to December 2013, a total of 3,965 dwellings were completed by the private sector which is the highest number for the first three quarters of the year since 2009-10.
