US Edition 
Galliford Try house sales rise sharply
The disparity between the South East housing market and the rest of the UK was emphasised again on Tuesday as Galliford Try posted a sharp increase in house sales.
The housebuilder and construction group said housing completions in the year to June 30 rose 27pc to 2,170 homes while the average sale price rose 10pc to £227,000.
Galliford Try is two years into a strategy designed to turn the company into one of Britain's biggest housebuilders. Under the Linden Homes brand, it has amassed a landbank with 10,250 plots focused on the South East and London.
Its results are a contrast to falling sales at Persimmon, which has a greater exposure to the UK regions and sells cheaper homes to buyers more reliant on high loan-to-value mortgages.
Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive, said Galliford Try's construction arm has "maintained its workload" despite public spending cuts.
The order book stands at £1.75bn, compared with £1.8bn last year, but Mr Fitz-gerald said the company's focus on London, Scotland and regulated utilities has protected Galliford Try from the worst effects of a "difficult" market. It is also working on projects such as the Forth Road Crossing.
Shares in Galliford Try, which have almost doubled in the past six months, fell 14 to 516p.