TAYLOR Wimpey has seen ­Scottish completions tail off in recent weeks as canny consumers wait for the next tranche of Help to Buy funding to come on stream.

The housebuilder, which did not provide exact figures, said it was confident the softening in the market will not turn into a sustained downturn.

It indicated footfall at its sites, mainly across central Scotland, continues to be steady with reservations made by buyers also starting to pick up.

However, finance director Ryan Mangold expects a portion of the transactions will not complete until April next year when further Help to Buy financing is being released in Scotland.

He said: "We have seen it slightly slower in Scotland. Now it is getting closer to April we are seeing reservations happening but we expect to see completions in the first quarter being slightly more muted on the basis that consumers are waiting for the funding allocation to come through."

Taylor Wimpey, which has previously called for an early end to the Help to Buy scheme, suggested consumers still need to have greater clarity on when the mortgage funding support is likely to be removed.

Mr Mangold said there needs to be a clear end date with an expectation the wider mortgage market will at that point have returned to more normal lending patterns, including offering 95 per cent loans to first time buyers.

He said: "Having 42 or 43 per cent of our business being supported by the government is not necessarily the most healthy place to be as at some stage we would expect that funding to be withdrawn."

However Mr Mangold remains confident in the prospects for the business in the Scottish market.

He said: "There's no doubt that Scotland, like the rest of the UK, needs a huge number of houses to be provided.

"We haven't been building nearly enough homes to keep up with demand over the last seven or eight years and I think it is going to remain under-supplied for a long period of time."

Taylor Wimpey said weekly sales rates in the second half of its financial year are around five per cent below the prior year. It said cooling of the housing market was welcome and positioned the sector for sustainable growth. It has met its target for completions for 2014 and stated it has 25 per cent of its completions for 2015 in place.