Preston is England's 'newest' city with the biggest new-build boost in the last five years

The latest research by Unlatch, the platform for developers to digitise and accelerate their new-homes sales process, has revealed which of England’s cities rank as the nation’s newest, based on the level of new homes delivered in the last five years as a proportion of total market stock.

Across England as a whole, 808,770 new homes have been built in the last five years, equating to three per cent of the total 24.7m homes, new and old, found across the nation’s housing market.

Unlatch looked at new-build delivery across the nation’s major towns and cities and found that it is, in fact, Preston that ranks as the newest of the lot.

A total of 2,660 new homes have reached the Preston housing market over the last five years.

With a total of 64,847 dwellings found across the city, this boost to housing stock in the form of new homes has accounted for 4.1 per cent of the total housing market.

Manchester ranks as the next newest city, where new-build delivery over the last five years has formed 3.8 per cent of the city's total housing stock.

Newcastle and Middlesbrough also rank high, with new homes accounting for 3.4% of total housing stock, with London ranking fifth at three per cent.

Lee Martin, Head of UK for Unlatch said: “New-build homes play a vital role in England’s housing market and the sector is really the primary channel by which we aim to solve the current housing crisis.

“Every incoming government has pledged to boost new-build delivery in one form or another, although it’s fair to say they rarely achieved it, but we’ve certainly seen an uptick in the level of new homes reaching the market in recent years.

“These are generally focussed around our major urban hubs, but you’d certainly be forgiven for dismissing Preston as the nation’s newest city based on recent new-build delivery in relation to the size of the existing market.”