Builders rake it in despite housing woes

HoUseBUiLDeRs Barratt and Redrow have raked in bumper profits on the back of Help to Buy and low interest rates.

the results cheered investors and boosted shares in the companies despite sluggish house prices and warnings about Brexit.

Barratt profits surged by nearly a fifth to £408m in the second half of 2018, on sales of £2.1bn. in that period, it sold 7,622 homes, up 4.1pc.

Around 38pc of buyers used Help to Buy loans which are funded by the taxpayer and have been strongly criticised as a subsidy for developers.

Barratt said it would use its massive earnings to return cash to shareholders in a dividend bonanza worth £350m over the next two years.

David thomas, the developer’s chief executive, said: ‘As Britain’s largest housebuilder, we are helping to address the country’s housing shortage homes, which is causing the market to seize up. sales in the first five weeks of 2019 have fallen from £166m last year to £156m, it said. Redrow said it sold 2,970 homes, up 12pc.

the upbeat results came despite a string of rivals such as Crest, telford Homes and Bellway sounding the alarm bell over Brexit.

shares in Barratt rose 2.8pc, or 15.4p, to 561.8p yesterday. Redrow shares rose 0.2pc, or 1p, to 593p.