NEWLY built but unsold flats and houses throughout Herefordshire could soon take some of the 5,000 households now on the waiting list for homes in the county.

Herefordshire Council is doing deals to put families on the waiting list into properties that developers are struggling – or will struggle – to sell.

Figures for the number of properties sold in the county between August and October last year show a steep decline in the number of completions compared to similar statistics for 2007.

The biggest drop came in October with 249 fewer properties sold compared to the year before. Drops of 230 and 165 were recorded for August and September respectively.

Richard Gabb, Herefordshire Council’s head of strategic housing, said the authority was approaching developers to have newly built – but unsold – homes occupied by waiting list households.

Under the initiative, the council acts as a broker introducing developers to housing associations that could let the homes or explore their potential for shared ownership.

“We thought if the market isn’t going to come to us, we’ll go to the market saying that, in the current downturn, surely it’s better to have homes occupied than mothballed, particularly with the need for affordable housing that we have here,” said Mr Gabb.

Negotiations so far involve 135 properties. The council is also looking to increase the number of affordable homes in prospective and future developments by using planning agreements.

Access to the kind of government grants that support affordable development will also be explored.

Herefordshire Council sees new homes as crucial to the county’s future and nearly 17,000 of them – at least 8,000 in Hereford alone – are expected by 2026, according to the draft West Midlands Regional Spatial Strategy, which dictates development patterns.

Recent releases of land for new housing –as identified in the county’s unitary development plan – has increased the rate of completions and took the latest total (2007/2008) to 829.

In terms of affordable housing, 141 units were completed in 2007/2008, up by 120 on the previous year. It is to early to say what effect the downturn will have on future completion rates.

The proportion of socially rented properties in Herefordshire remains lower than average. Herefordshire Council transferred its housing stock to housing associations in 2003.

Affordable housing remains a key concern. At January 1 this year, the number of households on the county’s housing waiting list had reached 5,266.

Two of the county’s best known estate agents agree that first time buyers could revive the market through ‘realistic’ prices.

Andrew Morris, of Andrew Morris and Co, said the drop in mortgage rates could see young first-time buyers turning to mum and dad for affordable deposits.

Bill Jackson, of Bill Jackson, said first-time buyers were now the key to the whole market as property values drop and those who can afford to buy at three to three-and-a-half times income return to a stabilising market.

Latest figures taken from home.co.uk – which boasts the AUK’s biggest database of homes advertised for sale on the internet – reveals there are 2,612 properties on the market in Herefordshire, with the average price £272,535, and time on the market at 231 days.