Taylor Wimpey trading at upper end of expectations

House builder Taylor Wimpey said the UK housing market conditions remain stable and it is trading at the upper end of company expectations.

It added that while mortgage availability remains a constraint on the housing market, it has made a strong start to the year and remain confident of it trading in 2012.

Taylor Wimpey said that underlying pricing was unchanged and while mortgage availability is restricted, the introduction of the NewBuy mortgage indemnity guarantee scheme in March has enabled access to 95% mortgages.

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It achieved an average private net reservation rate of 0.62 sales per outlet per week for the year to date compared to 0.57 the same a year earlier. Cancellation rates remain below the long term average at 14% compared to 14.6% in 2011.

The value of its order book, excluding legal completions to date, increased to £1.03bn, up by 23% from the year end and by 16% from the equivalent point last year, driven primarily by private reservations.

"We continue to expect to deliver further steady improvement in margin, return on net operating assets and net asset value through the ongoing delivery of our strategy," it said in a company update.

"In particular, we are achieving margins at the upper end of our expectations through strong performance on new sales outlets and further enhanced returns on those new outlets sourced from our strategic land portfolio."

The group expects to deliver further steady improvement in margin, return on net operating assets and net asset value.

CJ