TAYLOR Wimpey said it has yet to see any meaningful impact on its order book from Brexit as it grew profits by 12.1 per cent in the six months to July 3.
Ryan Mangold, group financial director, said the numbers brought “a bit of stability and sense” to the housing market.
But he added it may be another year before investor confidence in the share price is fully restored. Taylor Wimpey shares dropped by more than 40 per cent after the Brexit vote, as housebuilders bore the brunt of a dive in confidence.
He said that while Taylor Wimpey’s sales of £1.5 billion were in line with normal seasonal patterns, and customer interest continues to be high, there were wider macroeconomic questions that would continue to drag on confidence.
“It may only be at the point when those questions are answered in 12-18 months that certainty will return for investors. All that being said, we have a positive trend between now and into next spring selling season and that will go a long way to answer consumers’ questions.”
Mr Mangold added that by this time next year, visibility on 2018’s likely performance would be the “final evidence piece in terms of share price strength, business quality and ability to deliver in the climate, whatever that might be.”
He added that the underlying fundamentals of the business were “strong and attractive” thanks to the accessibility and cost of mortgages, along with the undersupply in the housing market.
“No one is expecting interest rates to rise in the short term, but I don’t think mortgage rates can get much tighter than they are, even if the base rate is cut further” he said.
“We had a reasonable amount of engagement with investors in that first week [after the EU referendum] but the share prices is coming back a bit, and is in a positive trend,” he said.
Volume trading was five times the daily average and that, Mr Mangold, said had also stabilised to a certain extent.
Shares closed yesterday up 6.7 per cent to 154.6p, on the back of the positive short-term outlook.
Taylor Wimpey completed a total of 6,019 homes in the period, excluding joint ventures, up three per cent. Profit before tax and exceptional items stood at £267m.
In Scotland, there were 763 completions from 44 outlets, with net private sales of 0.78 – in line with the UK number. This common metric measures sales per outlet per week.
The average selling price north of the Border was £217,000, up 9.6 per cent on the same period last year, something Mr Mangold put down to both market conditions and improvements in build quality and location.
"From an affordability perspective fundamentals are just as attractive as England even with different help to buy applications,” he said.
The return on net operation assets for the half was up two per cent to 25.2 per cent, showing what Mr Mangold called: “continued balance sheet discipline and quality of underlying earnings”
The FTSE 100 company’s order book is valued at more than £2.2 billion as of 24 July, and its short-term land bank contains 78,000 plots.
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