Homes giant bullish over property market

In a full-year trading update, the group reported a 5 per cent rise in completions to 14,541 over 2017, while average prices on private sales lifted three per cent to £296,000.

Taylor, which is the UK’s third biggest housebuilder and has built homes across the Portsmoouth area – said it saw ‘good demand and trading’ throughout 2017 and expects further growth in the year ahead.

Its bullish remarks come in spite of mounting worries over a housing market slowdown after a run of recent downbeat reports.

Data from mortgage group Halifax showed the first monthly decline for six months in December as falling wages and Brexit fears weighed. It said house prices fell 0.6 per cent month-on-month in December, following a 0.3 per cent increase in both October and November.

Pete Redfern chief executive of Taylor, said: ‘Despite wider macroeconomic uncertainty, housing market fundamentals remain solid and our trading performance has been good.’