Taylor Wimpey PLC (LSE:TW.)’s results showed the wounds inflicted by tough trading conditions as rising interest rates knocked the housing market.
In the six months to 2 July 2023, the housebuilder said revenue fell 21% to £1.64 billion from £2.08 billion the year before while pre-tax profit slumped 29% to £237.7 million from £334.5 million before.
House completions slipped to 5,120 homes from 6,922 last year while the net private sales rates of 0.71 in the period compared to 0.90 last year.
Jennie Daly, chief executive, said: “The first half of the year has been characterised by variable market conditions including substantially higher mortgage rates.”
Nonetheless, the firm expects full-year UK completions excluding joint ventures to be in the range of 10,000 to 10,500, the upper end of previous guidance, reflecting a healthy order book and strong underlying interest.
It forecast operating profit including joint ventures to be in the range of £440-£470 milllion.
The net private sales rate in the first four weeks of the second half of the year was 0.47 compared to 0.57 last week, it said.
Despite the fall in profit, the interim dividend was boosted to 4.79p from 4.62p, a rise of 3.7%.