Housing market research

It is really important for us to understand what’s happening in the housing market and to be aware of how things may be changing.  

Strategic Housing Market Assessment

We have a statutory duty to undertake a Sheffield Housing Market Assessment (SHMA) in order to identify the scale and range of housing required over the course of the Local Plan. A key part of this is determining the affordable housing requirements for the city, including the different sizes and types of affordable housing needed.

The SHMA tells us:

• about the supply and demand for different housing in the city
• estimates the number of new homes that will be needed over the next 5 years
• provides important evidence about the housing market that we can use in the development of housing and planning policies to help guide future housing delivery

This robust analysis of housing need and aspiration helps to ensure that the right mix and types of homes are being delivered in the right places.

Housing Market Area Profiles

Housing Market Area Profiles are part of the wider Strategic Housing Market Assessment. There are 13 Housing Market Area Profiles as part of the Strategic Housing Market Assessment. These Housing Market Area Profiles enable us to account for localised variation in:

• housing stock prices
• tenure
• neighbourhood conditions

House price information

As part of our responsibility to monitor the housing market in Sheffield, we routinely collect house price information from the UK House Price Index dataset, which uses sales data collected on residential housing transactions by the Land Registry.

The Land Registry information is widely considered the most reliable source of house price data because it includes all sales in England and Wales, cash and mortgage, and is not skewed by asking prices as some other house price information is.

We use this data to determine the average house price for each housing market area, ward and neighbourhood in the city. This is done by weighting the sale data for each area against the UK House Price Index average house price for the city.

Gypsy and Traveller Needs Assessment

Local authorities consider the specific needs of Gypsies and Travellers when assessing housing needs. The latest Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment for Sheffield covers 2019 to 2024.