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The revolving door of housing ministers is set to continue with Dominic Raab鈥檚 departure after barely six months in post.

Prime minister Theresa May has announced Raab鈥檚 promotion to the Cabinet following David Davis鈥� resignation as Brexit secretary last night. One developer has described the situation as 鈥渁 circus鈥�

Raab was appointed as housing minister in January at the time the Department for Communities and Local Government was rebranded as the Ministry of Housing, Communities, and Local Government in an attempt to underscore the importance of the housing agenda to the government.

May has yet to announce a replacement for Raab at MHCLG; his move to fill Davis鈥� shoes at the Department for Exiting the European Union was only confirmed by the prime minister鈥檚 official Twitter feed shortly before 10.30am.

Raab replaced Alok Sharma in January, who had himself replaced Gavin Barwell 鈥� who lost his marginal Croydon Central seat in Theresa May鈥檚 disastrous snap general election.

Barwell had served as housing minister for less than a year, having been appointed to the role by Theresa May when she succeeded David Cameron as prime minister just under two years ago.

Raab鈥檚 appointment in January was greeted with concern over the revolving door in the housing brief. His successor will be the fourth holder of the role since last year鈥檚 housing white paper.

Johnny Caddick, managing director at build-to-rent developer Moda said it was crucial that Raab鈥檚 successor picked up Barwell鈥檚 baton, more than 12 months after he left office.

鈥淭his extraordinary circus of housing ministers continues,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he government needs to prove that it鈥檚 not focusing on Brexit at the expense of everything else.

鈥滻t鈥檚 vital we have continuity in the role and a reality check about the vital role build-to-rent needs to play.

鈥淲e need a new minister to continue the great work Gavin Barwell did in supporting investment and in ensuring we have the necessary skilled workforce to build all the homes politicians keep promising voters.鈥�

Sarah McMonagle, director of external affairs at the Federation of Master Builders, said the pace of change among housing ministers appeared to be quickening from a two year term earlier in the decade to 鈥渧irtually two a year鈥�.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a very complicated sector that takes some time to get your head around and the turnstile in and out is not helping that,鈥� she said.

鈥淔rom the FMB鈥檚 perspective at this point it鈥檚 a plea to government to allow the next minister to get their head around the industry and stay in the role for an extended period.鈥�

McMonagle said it was 鈥渄ifficult to say鈥� whether Raab had the opportunity to get his head around the industry in his time as housing minister.

鈥淲e never actually got to meet him, our first meeting was scheduled for later this month,鈥� she said.

鈥淗e had a slight reputation for not wanting to take up too much time with industry meetings. This isn鈥檛 just something that came from us, other trade bodies also found it difficult to meet him.

鈥淐onversely we have been engaging well with James Brokenshire. We just ended up engaging at the secretary of state level, that tier above, because Raab wasn鈥檛 open to meeting. Hopefully the new housing minister is more amenable to meeting and working with industry.鈥�