Taylor Wimpey shares fell on Thursday on the back of the company’s latest trading update.
The house builder said that the market for new builds ‘remained stable’ during the first quarter of the year.
Taylor Wimpey said demand was driven in large part by continued accessibility to mortgages, low interest rates and high employment levels in the UK.
Overall, the company said that sales have continued to be strong during spring trading, with average private sales at 1.03 per outlet per week, compared to 0.85 back in 2018.
Meanwhile, the firm said that pricing ‘remained flat’ when compared to the final quarter of 2018. Cancellation rates also remained at 13% during the period.
As of the week ending 21 April 2019, Taylor Wimpey said that its total order book value stood at approximately £2,399 million, compared to £ 2,155 million in 2018, with 10,291 homes set to be completed.
Nevertheless, it warned on higher than expected costs, largely part to cost inflation relating to materials, which impacted profits.
Pete Redfern, Chief Executive of Taylor Wimpey, commented on the latest figures:
“We’ve made a good start to 2019 and in spite of wider macroeconomic uncertainty, the housing market has remained stable. We are achieving a record sales rate and building a solid forward order book for the year, although we see increased build cost pressures.
We continue to make encouraging progress in embedding our customer-centric strategy and driving significant improvements in our quality and delivery, and it was pleasing to be recognised by the Home Builders Federation (HBF) as a five-star homebuilder in March this year. Our priority is to enhance every step of our customers’ buying and aftercare service so that we deliver the highest quality homes and become the first choice homebuilder.
Looking ahead, we are focused on delivering our ambitious strategic goals to drive sustainable growth and create long term value for our customers and shareholders.”
Shares in the FTSE-100 company (LON:TW) are currently down -3.25% as of 11:59AM (GMT).
