The UK housebuilder sector took a blow today after broker Jefferies issued downgrades for some of the biggest players.
The broker said it believes that negative coverage on UK mortgage approvals, UK housing transactions, weak house price data and lower UK GDP growth will lead to share price weakness in the UK residential sector in Q1.
It said: “As a result, we are no longer recommending that investors buy any of the UK residential-linked shares under our coverage.”
It added that it was moving Barratt Developments from buy to underperform, and Berkeley Group, Persimmon and Rightmove from hold to underperform.
