Barratt Redrow completed 12.1% fewer homes during the first 17 weeks of its financial year as affordability pressures continued to weigh on private buyers, although stronger demand from the private rental sector helped support overall reservations.
The UK housebuilder completed 3,223 homes, including joint ventures, between 29 June and 25 October 2026, compared with 3,665 during the equivalent period last year.
Barratt Redrow reported that its underlying private reservation rate declined to 0.53 homes per active outlet per week from 0.57 a year earlier.
The measure excludes certain multi-unit transactions and provides an indication of demand from individual private buyers.
By contrast, the total private reservation rate increased to 0.59 from 0.57, supported by stronger activity involving the private rented sector.
The company recorded an average of 243 private reservations per week, compared with 228 in the corresponding period last year.
The divergence between underlying and total reservation rates reflects the contribution of larger transactions to overall sales activity while demand from individual purchasers remains subdued.
Private rental sector transactions involve homes acquired for letting rather than individual owner occupation. Such arrangements can allow developers to sell groups of properties, providing an additional source of demand alongside conventional residential buyers.
The company’s forward order book, including joint ventures, stood at £3,315.4m across 11,086 homes at 25 October.
That compares with £3,281.4m across 10,669 homes at the same point last year, representing increases of approximately 1% in value and 3.9% in the number of homes.
The group was 56% forward sold against its planned private completions for the 2027 financial year, compared with 60% at the equivalent point in the previous year.
Although the overall order book has increased, the lower proportion of planned private completions already secured indicates that the business has more sales activity to complete during the remainder of the financial year.
Chief executive Dean Banks said: “While the underlying private reservation rate has been softer, we have seen stronger demand from the private rental sector.”
The company identified continuing affordability pressures as a major influence on buyer behaviour.
Mortgage costs, deposit requirements, and household income affect the ability of purchasers to finance new homes. These factors are particularly relevant to first-time buyers, who generally have less existing housing equity available to support a purchase.
For housebuilders, weaker individual reservation activity can affect the pace of construction and the timing at which completed properties are sold.
Barratt Redrow has continued to emphasise cost efficiencies, disciplined land investment, and management of work in progress as it responds to market conditions.
Controlling construction expenditure and land commitments can help limit capital tied up in developments when the pace of private sales is uncertain.
The company also welcomed the government’s Your First Home scheme and wider planning reforms, identifying them as potential sources of support for housing delivery.
However, management said it was too early to assess the scheme’s effect on first-time buyer activity during the current financial year.
The eventual effect of buyer support measures will depend on their implementation and the ability of eligible households to obtain suitable mortgage financing.
Despite the reduction in completed homes and weaker underlying reservations, Barratt Redrow maintained its financial guidance for the year ending 30 June 2027.
The group is due to publish interim results on 17 February 2027, providing further information on completed sales, reservations, and its financial position.
Its latest figures show that stronger demand from the private rental sector has supported the wider sales pipeline, while individual buyer activity remains constrained by affordability conditions.
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