New build completions rose to 13,166 in August of this year, a 3% increase on the same month last year. The NHBC figures also show that whilst there were 13,639 applications to start new homes in August, a decrease of 12% on the same month last year, within this total there were 2,222 UK housing association applications, a 25% increase on August last year. The NHBC also found that an average of 493 new homes were sold each day during August 2005, a 2% increase on the same month last year. NHBC chief executive Imtiaz Farookhi said: “NHBC statistics show that social housing registrations remain strong and overall the number of new homes started in the UK remains relatively stable. However, the rate of sales during the current financial year has been lower than last year, and some builders are anticipating a reduction in sales for the financial year as a whole.”