Homebuyer satisfaction levels rising, says HBF

Buyer satisfaction for new-build homes has increased for the second year running in 2018 after previously falling for years in a row, according to the latest figures from the Home Builders Federation (HBF).

Following years of poor-quality delivery – and a week after Persimmon announced that its new-build customers would soon be able to hold back thousands of pounds from the cost of their purchases in the event they found snags which needed to be fixed – the HBF’s latest satisfaction survey showed 87% of new homeowners would recommend their builder to a friend, a percentage point up on last year’s poll.

More than 90% said they would buy a new-build home again, according to the survey, nearly 100,000 of which had been sent out to, with 61,000 returned.

Asked about satisfaction levels with the builder of their home, 48% said they were “very satisfied”, up from 46% in 2017, while the proportion of those who were “very dissatisfied” fell from 7% in 2017 to 6%.

The percentage of buyers who reported problems with their new home remained steady at 1% in 2018, while 23% said there were fewer problems than they’d been expecting, compared with 24% in the 2017 survey.

Homebuyers reporting one to five faults fell from 31% to 30%, although the percentage of those reporting in excess of 16 snags rose from 25% to 26%.

Bovis received four stars through the HBF’s star rating ranking, up from two stars a year ago, when the company was mired in a series of claims around poor workmanship and ended up setting aside more than £3m to compensate customers who had experienced problems with their new homes.

Redrow and Taylor Wimpey were awarded five stars, up one star apiece compared with 2017, while St Modwen Homes, currently trying to push through a major housing development in Lee Green, south-east London, shipped one star, down to four.

The HBF said the industry was committed to delivering more improvements and was “proactively engaged with a broad range of stakeholders looking at how a new homes ombudsman can be introduced, with the objective of raising standards, further strengthening consumer redress and increasing the amount of information available up front for homebuyers”.