Taylor Wimpey cashes in on housing boom

ONE of Britain’s biggest housebuilders upgraded its profit guidance after completing a record number of new homes.

Taylor Wimpey built 7,303 homes in the six months to July 4, hitting revenues of £2.2bn – 26.8pc more than in the same period in 2019.

It posted half-year profits of £424m, against losses of £16.1m the previous year, although this was dragged down by a £125m charge for remedial works to fix unsafe cladding on apartment blocks.

It now expects full-year group earnings to hit a mammoth £820m, beating analysts’ expectations, and to finish around 14,000 homes this year. shares rose 1.9pc to 168p, valuing the company at £6.4bn.

The UK property market has been firing on all cylinders, thanks to low mortgage rates, the stamp duty holiday and savings accumulated in the pandemic.

Many buyers have also made the decision to move out of major cities.

Chief executive Pete Redfern said: ‘The pandemic has accelerated people’s decision to move from London to the suburbs. We’ve seen real growth in markets in the south West and up into East anglia.’

Taylor said it had pre-sold almost all of its private homes, up from some 97pc a year ago and 87pc two years ago.

Rising material and build costs, which are having an impact across the construction sector, were offset by the ‘healthy’ house price growth.

The average price of a private Taylor Wimpey home rose 6.5pc to £327,000, compared to a year earlier.

The rush to build more homes, and the uncertainty caused by the pandemic, led Taylor Wimpey to raise £500m from investors last year.

since then it has spent £1.8bn on sites, around twice as much as in a normal year.