Barratt expects prices to rise 8-10% this year

17th Nov 2009 07:24

Housebuilder Barratt has confirmed the improvement in the UK housing market and forecasts its prices will have risen by up to 10% over the year helped by a higher proportion of houses in its sales mix."Consistent with the re-planning and build programme, a shift in product mix towards a higher proportion of houses is expected. We continue to anticipate that this change in mix will improve average selling prices by around 8-10% for the financial year," it said. Visitor levels per active site for the 19 weeks to 8 November averaged 1.88 per week (2008: 1.88), with net private reservations averaging 204 per week (2008: 197). The forward order book at 8 November 2009 stood at £846.6m (2008: £817.7m) of which £506.0m was contracted (2008: £481.5m). Based on the recent stability in pricing we do not anticipate any additional impairment within our housebuilding business, it added."Whilst there has been an improvement in market conditions, further recovery will be dependent on increases in mortgage lending particularly in the higher loan to value segment. With these constraints remaining in place, we continue to expect total completions for FY10 to be approximately 12,000, with around 16% of the total comprising social units," Barratt said.