Thursday, Jan 14, 2010
Flattering to deceive?
Timesonline: Barratt sales prices jump 4 per cent
Barratt Developments, the UK housebuilder, said today that a switch to building more houses rather than flats has led to a rise in average sales price of 4 per cent over the past six months.
The group, which is one of the UK's three largest housebuilders, said that its average sales price was now £167,000 as a result of the change in focus, which has followed a slump in flat sales as first-time buyers and buy-to-let investors are unable to secure mortgages.
Houses made up 65 per cent of sales in the past six months, compared with 50 per cent for the same period last year
Posted by dill @ 09:36 AM (959 views) Add Comment
9 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
This is intended to be good news.
2. quiet guy said...
Even some of the most vocal property bulls have been warning about flats for years now. Switching production from flats to houses does seem sensible and it's not surprising that Barratt's are getting more for their houses.
I was dismayed to read this bit: " “Over the last six months we have successfully refinanced the business, reduced debt and invested in land which will deliver higher returns."
Back to the old ways speculating in land banks. Hopefully, they'll get their fingers burned again. If only we had builders actually interested in building things instead of speculating on land values.
3. dill said...
hpwatcher @1.
The devil (as always) is in the detail.
4. str 2007 said...
Surely this headline clearly highlights the rise in the HaliWide indexes.
5. timmy t said...
I know I always like to see the negative side of these stories, but surely given the increase in house sales vs flat sales, then a 4% average increase across the board is actually a drop... difficult to prove without more data though.
Last week I sold 2 minis and 2 Ferraris, average selling price = £50K, this week I sold 1 mini and 3 Ferraris, average selling price = £52K therefore prices are up 4%... etc.
6. will said...
Average sales price? Sounds like estate agent speak for average asking prices in their windows. But what are they actually selling them for?
7. rumble said...
Not good news for the amateur BTLs who piled into new build flats.
8. str 2007 said...
Not wishing misery on others, but to be honest there has been very little in the media about bankrupt londlords who did pile into city centre flats which HAVE halved in price and probably not let.
Unless of course most were from the media which could be a reason for the silence.
Is it possible there could have been any sort of government driven media blackout on such stories ?
9. a saver said...
Agree with timmyt@5. The first bit explaining how the average sale price has increased makes sense but then they follow with 'It boosted hopes that the worst is over for the housing sector' which is really silly.
Bring on some reality for the housing market please! I am sure that many people are hanging out for higher prices in the future because of dumb ramping in the media. And they're being allowed to do this courtesy of savers, who have seen returns from many bank accounts slashed by over 90%.