Taylor Wimpey: UK housing market stable

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by Gill Montia

Despite the continued uncertainty in the eurozone and global economy, Taylor Wimpey reports that the UK housing market remained stable throughout the first half of 2012.

Overall, the developer’s pricing remained unchanged during the period and while mortgage lending was tight, a number of higher loan to value products emerged, most notably under the NewBuy scheme.

Since its launch in March, the group has booked 201 reservations under the scheme, while at the same time increasing its use of the government-backed FirstBuy shared-equity facility.

In the first six months of the year, Taylor Wimpey completed a total of 5,083 dwellings (H1 2011: 4,707), of which 4,137 were private completions (H1 2011: 3,675) and 893 were affordable completions (H1 2011: 1,004).

The average selling price on private completions increased slightly to around £188,000, reflecting a higher quality housing mix, while the average selling price on affordable completions decreased to circa £115,000, compared with £117,000 a year earlier.