Bovis and Redrow have announced 40% cuts in their workforces.
Some 8,000 jobs have been lost in the industry – double the number announced so far – and are still rising.
Bovis will halt speculative development of new homes next week although it said it would complete homes that had been reserved or pre-sold.
Bovis said in its trading update it was planning a “non-material adjustment” to the value of its land bank. It reported a 32% fall in completions and said it expected gross housing profit margins of 26% in the first half, down 6% on the same period last year.
Advanced sales to the end of June, to be completed by the year-end, fell 35% to 1,482 homes.
Redrow’s trading update for the year to June was worse than analysts expected. It warned “a significant” writedown to its £650m land bank was likely.
Advanced sales at Redrow had almost halved to 1,189 and net reservations fell 55% below last year’s level.
Bovis rose 5.5p to 323p and Redrow, 3.75p to 100p.
10/07/08 Financial Times 20, 40
Times 38, 43
Daily Telegraph B1, B6, B7
Guardian 26
Independent 38, 46
