Taylor Wimpey Sees Decline in First-Half Home Sales, Focuses on Cost Cuts
Taylor Wimpey Plc , Britain’s second- largest homebuilder by volume, said first-half home sales in the U.K. will probably decline to 4,650 from 4,702 a year earlier.
Average prices are likely to rise to about 167,000 pounds ($251,000), from 153,000 pounds, Taylor Wimpey said today in a statement. The order book accounts for 83 percent of the company’s full-year sales target, it said.
“With ongoing political and economic uncertainty, we continue to run the business on a cautious basis, with selective land investment and an ongoing focus on costs and cash,” the company said in the statement. “We remain concerned regarding future spending reviews that could impact on housing initiatives.”
U.K. house prices rose the least in five months in June as the prospect of a budget squeeze curbed demand and the supply of homes for sale increased, Hometrack Ltd. said today. The number of new buyers registering with real-estate agents grew 0.1 percent, and fell in six out of 10 regions, led by a 0.9 percent drop in London, the report said.

