Residential landlord Grainger bucks trend in housing market

Chief executive Andrew Cunningham said Grainger, which has around 2.8bn of assets under management, was exploiting the tougher market conditions to make well-priced acquisitions and consolidate its growth.

"Our portfolio is continuing to prove to be resilient... despite price growth in the general housing market slowing in the last few months reflecting the economic uncertainty," Mr Cunningham said in a statement.

Grainger said it was trading well despite the gloomy market sentiment, with 67.6m of buys in its acquisition pipeline and 154.8m of sales completed, exchanged or in solicitors' hands.

In the 10-month period to end-July, the company sold 593 vacant units at a sales margin of 42.6 per cent, compared with 625 units at a margin of 35.5 percent a year earlier.

Earlier this week, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors said the balance of new buyer enquiries dropped for the second consecutive month in July.

Confidence in the economy has taken a sharp knock

since the coalition Government revealed plans to slash spending by as much as a quarter in a bid to bring ballooning national debt under control.

The proposed cuts have put thousands of public sector jobs at risk and raised widespread doubt that the economy will be able to match the

surprise 1.1 per cent growth it posted between April and June.