Taylor Wimpey Plc is the latest British homebuilder to flash warning signs about the nation’s housing market after a week of downbeat trading updates.
(Bloomberg) — Taylor Wimpey Plc is the latest British homebuilder to flash warning signs about the nation’s housing market after a week of downbeat trading updates.
The homebuilder said it was “highly selective” in buying land in the second half of 2022 due to the challenging nature of the planning environment. The removal of the need for planning authorities to maintain a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites could cause delays and a shortfall in the supply of homes, the company said in a statement Friday.
Berkeley Group issued a similar warning to the UK government last month regarding the watering down of planning reforms. Barratt Developments Plc said Tuesday it may build fewer homes this year following a sharp slowdown in sales. Meanwhile, Persimmon Plc warned it will take a “highly selective approach” to new land purchases in 2023, investing only where it sees the “very best opportunities”.
Britain’s housing market is facing severe disruption as it adapts to higher mortgage rates that are threatening to trigger a slump in house prices. Over 800,000 households will see their mortgage rates more than double in 2023 as they come off fixed-rate deals, according to an Office for National Statistics analysis of Bank of England data.
Taylor Wimpey saw its weekly net private reservation rate drop to 0.48 in the second half of 2022, compared with 0.85 in the same period a year earlier, according to the statement. The company’s order book also dropped to £1.9 billion ($2.3 billion) at the end of the year, compared with £2.5 billion in 2021.
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