‘House sales rate slowed over summer’

In a trading update, Redrow also revealed that its sales rate slowed over the summer, although cancellation rates remain at historically low levels.

In the interim management statement, Steve Morgan, the company’s chairman, said: “As I reported in my preliminary statement in September, the high demand for new homes generated by the launch of the Government’s Help to Buy scheme in 2013 has, this summer, reverted to a more normal level of activity. This, combined with a lack of availability on many of our sites due to the strong sales position, produced a sales rate per outlet per week for our regional businesses of 0.65, compared to the abnormally high rate of 0.87 in the summer of 2013. During the last ten weeks we have experienced a traditional autumn market and the sales rate, excluding London, was 0.68, in line with last year.”

In London, Redrow’s developments on release are almost fully sold out and, due to the timing of the launch of our new developments, year-to-date private reservations are 22 compared with 86 last year.

Redrow said that the average selling price of private reservations in the year to date is four per cent ahead of the same period last year at £284,000, due to both geographical mix and limited house price inflation.

Mr Morgan added: “Our private order book remains strong and in total is up 10% year on year at £465m, with the regional order book up 25 per cent. Since the start of the financial year we have added 1,500 plots across 14 sites to our current land bank..The total current land bank, both owned and contracted, has increased to 16,914 plots.

“Whilst the planning system at a strategic level has improved over recent years, obtaining detailed consents and clearing countless unnecessary conditions remains a significant constraint on new outlet openings and growth. In addition, political posturing ahead of next year’s General Election is already having a detrimental impact on the time taken to grant planning permissions in many parts of the country.

“Due to the phasing of land purchases and legal completions, our net debt has reduced from £173m in June to c£120m currently. We expect net debt to be £150m at the end of December 2014. Our balance sheet remains strong, leaving us well placed to continue to invest in new sites.”

The next scheduled update will be Redrow’s half-yearly results for the six months ending December 31 2014, which are due to be announced on Wednesday February 11 2015.”