Shares in the UK housebuilders led the FTSE 350 risers after Taylor Wimpey (TW.) and Vistry (VTY) announced plans to reopen construction sites.
The industry shut down sites on 24 March, despite being deemed a permitted activity by the government as housebuilders attempted to amend working practices in line with social distancing guidelines.
Taylor Wimpey plans to restart work in England and Wales in a phased manner from 4 May but will keep sales sites, show homes and regional offices closed and will continue to conduct sales virtually. The group expects to be at around 80 per cent building capacity by June.
Unsurprisingly, completions were down 14 per cent at 19 April compared with the same time last year, although cancellations represented just 0.8 per cent of the order book since sites and offices were closed. That meant that it grew the order book during shutdown by 200 units, which were agreed at comparable prices to those during the first quarter. The order book stood at 10,880 homes, excluding legal completions, of which well over half were exchanged, the group said.
After halting discretionary spending on land last month, the group also said it would start looking for future land opportunities “on a selective basis”.
Meanwhile Vistry announced that it would reopen 90 per cent of its partnership sites and a significant number of housebuilding sites from 27 April. The group will focus on completing homes that “are watertight and where we have clear visibility of completion and hence cash realisation”, it said.
Since lockdown the group has taken 212 gross private reservations, which resulted in 132 reservations net of cancellations. That was in addition to 170 homes that have been exchanged on and 193 private legal completions.
Net debt was also below management’s expectations at £440m at 21 April, a rise of only £5m since lockdown commenced, with around £40m of revenues from work already completed at the end of March expected to be received in the next two weeks.
