One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders upgraded its profit guidance after completing a record number of new homes.
Taylor Wimpey built 7,303 homes in the six months to July 4, hitting revenues of £2.2 billion – 26.8 per cent more than in the same period in 2019.
It posted half-year profits of £424 million, against losses of £16.1 million the previous year, although this was dragged down by a £125 million charge for remedial works to fix unsafe cladding on apartment blocks.
One of Britain’s biggest housebuilders upgraded its profit guidance after completing a record number of new homes
It now expects full-year group earnings to hit a mammoth £820 million, beating analysts’ expectations, and to finish around 14,000 homes this year. Shares rose 1.9 per cent to 168p, valuing the company at £6.4 billion.
The UK property market has been firing on all cylinders, thanks to low mortgage rates, the stamp duty holiday and savings accumulated in the pandemic. Many buyers have also made the decision to move out of major cities.
Chief executive Pete Redfern said: ‘The pandemic has accelerated people’s decision to move from London to the suburbs. We’ve seen real growth in markets in the South West and up into East Anglia.’
Taylor said it had pre-sold almost all of its private homes, up from some 97 per cent a year ago and 87 per cent two years ago. Rising material and build costs, which are having an impact across the construction sector, were offset by the ‘healthy’ house price growth.
The average price of a private Taylor Wimpey home rose 6.5 per cent to £327,000, compared to a year earlier. The rush to build more homes, and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, led Taylor Wimpey to raise £500 million from investors last year. Since then it has spent £1.8 billion on sites, around twice as much as in a normal year.
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