National housebuilder Taylor Wimpey says its sales are running behind last year but selling prices are up.
In a trading update, the company said 0.58 private sales were taking place per site per week (2009: 0.61).
“We saw a slight softening in sales around the time of the general election, although sales peformance has strengthened in recent weeks,” it said.
The company’s order book remains strong and it is now 83% sold for its full year targeted completions.
Selling prices were up to £167,000 (2009: £153,000).
Looking ahead, Taylor Wimpey said the underlying shortfall of new build housing and strong levels of demand will continue to underpin pricing in the housing market. But it admitted to short-term concern due to ongoing political and economic uncertainty.
“Although the recent UK budget did not contain new measures that we would expect to have a detrimental impact on the housing market, we remain concerned regarding future spending reviews that could impact on housing initiatives, particularly the level of social housing grant.”
