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Housebuilder Barratt sees autumn sales slow

By This Is Money
Updated: 06:43 EDT, 17 November 2010

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Housebuilder Barratt Developments reported a slowdown in reservations over the autumn as an uncertain economic environment continues to worry consumers.

Barratt: Average selling price on completions rose 9% to £180,000

Earlier this week Persimmon also revealed it had not experienced the normal increase in visitor levels and reservations in the last few months - traditionally among the busiest of the year for the housing market.

Barratt's net private reservations were down on the same period a year ago as consumers took longer to commit to buying due to uncertainty surrounding the government's spending review in October.

'Whilst the autumn selling season has been weaker than anticipated, our encouraging performance on price is expected to drive margin growth for the year,' chief executive Mark Clare said.

Britain's fourth-largest housebuilder by market value said the total average selling price on completions rose 9% to £180,000 in the period from July 1 to November 14.

Barratt said weak consumer confidence and a restricted mortgage market would drag on recovery, but forecast limited volume growth in the current financial year.

A sharp drop in mortgage availability from banks rebuilding their balance sheets has crimped demand for homes in Britain, with analysts expecting house prices to fall during the remainder of 2010 and into 2011.

The company said it expected net debt at the year-end to stand at around £575m, as it spent money buying land.

Shares in Barratt, which have underperformed the construction sector since mid-October, were up 1.5% at 74.6p.

Slight pick-up

Insulation and roofing group SIG said group sales rose 3% since the end of June compared with the same period a year ago, due to a slight pick-up in residential construction markets.

SIG said its markets remained exposed to a downturn in consumer confidence, as government austerity measures across Europe kick in, but it expected residential construction to show modest improvement in the first half of 2011.

Shares in SIG opened up 0.3% by 0816 GMT at 116.60p.

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