Barratt, the latest housebuilder to provide a trading update on the gloomy housing market, has entered 3,000 new homes into the government’s £400m HomeBuy Direct scheme.
The homes, originally planned for private sale, will become part-ownership properties, with homebuyers paying 70% of the cost, and the government and Barratt paying a 30% equity loan for the remainder.
The Barratt homes are across 138 developments, some of which have already been built, and others which are due for completion towards the end of the year.
Barratt said the homes have an approximate sales value of £520m.
The HomeBuy direct scheme is aimed to enable households with incomes below £60,000 to buy new-build homes. The loan is free of charge for five years, and can be used as a deposit.
In its trading update for the second half of 2008 today, Barratt said it completed 6,905 homes – down from 9,065 in the same period in 2007 – and witnessed an average fall per private sale of 14.8%.
Forward sales are down by 47%.
Yesterday Redrow reported that the number of homes it had sold had halved in the last six months, following Taylor Wimpey’s announcement on Tuesday that it expected to have to make further writedowns to the value of its land bank.
