Taylor Wimpey profits over twice sum spent on cladding safety work

Volume house builder Taylor Wimpey has announced a pre-tax profit for the first half of this year of £287.5m - and that’s taking into consideration a one off exceptional cost off £125m to repair cladding on its earlier buildings following the Grenfell tragedy. 

It predicts that its full-year profit will be £820m and it expects to have completed 13,200 to 14,000 new homes in 2021. 

The company has told shareholders in a trading statement that the average price of one of its homes rose 6.5 per cent on a year earlier to £327,000 - more than off-setting increases in building materials put down by some analysts to the pandemic and Brexit.

Chief executive Pete Redfern says he anticipates no long-term housing market issues as a result of the end of the stamp duty holiday.

There are “healthy levels of customer interest” in reservations stretching beyond the holiday deadline of September 30, and in its private developments no fewer than 99 per cent have been sold forward.

Property analyst Anthony Codling, of PropTech platform Twindig, says: “Taylor Wimpey delivered a strong set of half-year results and raised profit expectations for the full year, demonstrating that there will be life in the housing market after the end of the Stamp Duty holiday.

“The high level of homebuyer demand is driven by low interest rates, good mortgage availability and a shortage of stock in the second-hand market. 

“Looking further ahead, canny land buying during lockdown will allow Taylor Wimpey to accelerate its growth plans in the medium term to deliver more of the homes the country desperately needs.”