Telford and Shrewsbury top list for new builds

The towns are sixth and eighth respectively for the number of new homes being built.

Milton Keynes is Britain’s town with the highest number of newly built homes, as the bulk of developer investment is concentrated in the South East, according to new figures.

New homes in the Buckinghamshire town account for over a third of all property sales in the postcode area at 33.2 per cent, according to analysis of Hometrack figures by property website Zoopla.

London as a city was excluded from the study, which used postcode areas of Britain, but as a whole it would have come second, with new builds accounting for 31 per cent of sales in the capital.

The South East has the biggest concentration of new builds, with five out of ten towns with the highest proportion of new homes in the region, while the remaining three are in The Midlands, according to research - with two of those being in Shropshire.

Analysis also shows that there’s a correlation between new builds and rising prices, as areas with the highest concentration are also showing some of the biggest increases in property values.

House prices in Telford have reportedly risen by just over 18 per cent, or a total of £30,612, while prices in Shrewsbury rose by 19.9 per cent or £39,199.

In January it was revealed that Miller Homes is seeking permission to build 159 homes on land at Weeping Cross, to the south of Oteley Road and west of the A458 in Shrewsbury.

In Telford, hundreds of homes are being built as part of the Lawley Village development. The total Lawley Village site covers a 330-acre area of land, complete with 3,500 homes, representing a huge investment in the area.

Currently, building is ongoing opposite the new Lawley Village Academy.

Lawrence Hall, spokesperson for Zoopla, said: "New housing sales account for one in 10 property sales each year but this varies across the country. These new findings give us a useful overview of where new builds are most common around the country, outside of London.

"Clearly, areas such as Milton Keynes and Crewe are benefiting from new investment by developers.

"While there is a correlation between a large proportion of new builds and higher property price growth, new homes are typically developed in areas of high demand, which has already contributed to a rise in property values."

At the other end of the table, the Shetland village of Sandness has the smallest proportion of property sales accounted for by newly built properties, at only 0.5 per cent.