'Challenging' conditions hit reservations at Barratt Redrow

(Sharecast News) - Housebuilder Barratt Redrow reaffirmed full-year guidance on Wednesday, despite "challenging" market conditions hitting reservation rates and completions. Updating on trading ahead of its annual general meeting, the blue chip said the underlying private reservation rate in the 17 weeks to 25 October was 0.53, down from 0.57 a year previously, while completions, including joint ventures, slid 12.1% to 3,223.

The UK housing market is currently facing a number of headwinds, including mounting inflationary pressures and historically high interest rates, which have pushed up the cost of buying a house.

Chief executive Dean Banks said: "Our trading performance in the first 17 weeks has been resilient against a backdrop of challenging market conditions, with continued pressure on affordability."

He also welcomed the government's recently announced Your First Home scheme, which is intended to help support first-time buyers. "Alongside planning reform, [it] has the potential over time to support increased housing delivery," Banks said.

Barratt Redrow acknowledged it remained too early to assess the scheme's impact on first-time buyer activity in the 2027 full-year. But it added: "For the current year our guidance remains unchanged. We remain focused on driving cost efficiencies disciplined land investment and tightly managed control of work in progress."

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