(LONDON) Taylor Wimpey plc, the UK's largest homebuilder by market value, said that the average price of homes on order rose 9 per cent from the first half as the market continues to be 'significantly better' than last year.
The company has opened 22 more sales sites so far in the second half, London-based Taylor Wimpey said yesterday in a statement. Cancellation rates have fallen to 16 per cent, from 19 per cent in the first half, it said.
Evidence is growing that the country may have exited its worst property slump in 25 years. Mortgage lender Halifax, a division of Lloyds Banking Group plc, said on Tuesday that home values climbed by 1.2 per cent last month, after gaining 1.5 per cent in September.
'We didn't experience the usual seasonal industry slowdown over the summer, and sales rates have remained solid into the autumn,' chief executive officer Pete Redfern said in an interview. He said that data from mortgage lenders Halifax and Nationwide Building Society tend to exaggerate price increases and decreases, and said that he sees 'a solid, stable market', but nothing more.
Taylor Wimpey gained 7.9 per cent to 39.88 pence as of 9.41am in London trading. The shares fell as low as 3.34 pence in November as the UK's biggest housing slump in 30 years pushed it towards breaching banking covenants and forced it into nine- month rescue talks with lenders.
The UK homebuilding market's recovery could be hampered by restrictions on mortgage lending proposed by the country's financial regulator, according to analysts. The Financial Services Authority on Oct 19 proposed a ban on self-certification home loans and advocated affordability tests for all mortgages. It's also seeking to make lenders ultimately responsible for assessing a consumer's ability to pay.
'There has been a whole series of changes to the mortgage market, but no one thing will fundamentally increase or decrease mortgage availability,' Mr Redfern said. 'We see a slow and steady grind back to mortgage availability to a level below what we saw in 2006 and 2007.'
The order book stands at £1 billion (S$2.31 billion), little changed from a year ago, the company said. Taylor Wimpey now has 317 active sales sites, compared with around 500 at the top of the market in 2007. It may open 30 to 35 sites in the second half, Mr Redfern said.
The company has also joined peers in buying land, with 1,011 plots at eight new sites being bought since July in the UK at discounts of more than 60 per cent from the peak in some cases, Mr Redfern said.
In North America, the group has bought 2,240 plots in the second half to date. The company has about 60,000 plots of land in the UK and 22,000 in North America, he said. - Bloomberg
Source: Business Times, 5 Nov 2009
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