Barratt Developments, the UK’s largest housebuilder, has announced a 20.7% growth in total forward sales for the period July 1st to Nov 8th compared with the same period in 2014.
Barratt have also announced growth in net private reservations of 12.5% compared with in 2014, with 261 reservations compared with 232 between July 1st and Nov 8th 2014
David Thomas, Chief Executive at Barratt Developments said: “Against the backdrop of a significant structural shortage of new homes in Britain, we have made a strong start to the year.
“Operationally the business is performing well with strong sales, good control of input costs and continued land investment.
“Our targeted recruitment programme has delivered a further 250 new apprentices, graduates and trainees to the business.
“With our disciplined strategy and focus on achieving efficiencies across the business, we are on track to deliver further good progress in FY16.
“The outlook is positive and we are driving towards our FY17 targets of at least a 20% gross margin and at least a 25% return on capital employed.”
However the group also announced that 49 new developments have been launched, compared with 80 for the period in 2014 – with 380 sites currently active compared with 395 in 2014.
Barratt also stated they had approved options on 19 strategic sites, equating to 3,414 plots, ahead of the 3,225 plots for the same period in 2014.
