Taylor Wimpey order book down 40%

Taylor Wimpey is the latest housebuilder to reveal the full extent of the downturn in the UK property market.

The company has revealed that its order book for the first 44 weeks of 2008 fell by around 40%, to 6,607.

The figure compares with 11,074 over the same period of 2007.

During the six months to the end of June, the average selling price of a Taylor Wimpey home fell 15%, while reservations for the period were 27% below the level seen a year earlier, at 165 a week.

The builder, which has cut 1,900 jobs since the beginning of the year, also reported that the completion of new homes had slowed to around 40% of its normal levels.

The group described conditions in the UK housing market as having remained extremely challenging; adding that recent events in the global financial sector and an annual fall of over 14% in the average price of a home had weakened consumer confidence.

Like some of its rivals, Taylor Wimpey has had to down-value its land bank and restructure its business to survive the credit crisis.

The group is in the process of refinancing £1.9 billion of debt and describes this task as its top priority.

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