House builders buoyant despite Brexit

Redrow yesterday said its sales rate for the 19 weeks to 4 November was 4% up on last year and demand remains strong on its sites. It added that net private reservations were up 6% on last year, standing at 1,660.

Speaking at the company’s AGM, chairman Steve Morgan said: “Demand remains strong across the majority of our sites with buyers continuing to make purchase decisions well ahead of build programmes. Our private order book is currently £941m, a 29% increase on this time last year.”

Morgan said the average selling price has also risen, at £341,000, up from £334,000, even without the inclusion of the last of its high-value London apartments.

Meanwhile, Bovis Homes announced that it has also seen increased volume and average sales price, despite market uncertainty caused by the EU referendum.

Chief executive David Ritchie said political support, low unemployment and a competitive mortgage market are creating a positive environment. “Housing market fundamentals remain supportive despite greater market uncertainty,” he added.

Aside from the weeks immediately after the EU referendum, Bovis said its sales during the year to date have followed a normal seasonal pattern and it has reservations in place to achieve over 5% growth in legal completion volume in the year.

It expects the average sales price for 2016 to be around 10% ahead of last year, attributing this to improving mix and increased underlying market pricing.

In addition, Bovis said the supply of land into the market is good and it continues to buy high quality consented land in prime locations outside London. In the first half of 2016 it acquired 1,267 consented plots across 11 new sites and since then has acquired or approved for acquisition a further 1,033 consented plots across nine sites with a significant number of further investments at an advanced stage.