Redrow’s order book is almost half what it was last year, with the housebuilder warning that profit will be at the lower end of expectations.
The housebuilder has £864m of sales on the books, of which 66% are exchanged. That compares with £1.36bn and 74% exchanged at the same time last year.
Private reservations have also fallen by 25% to £384m, down from £515m.
Homes turnover for the period was 30% below last year at £456m, down from £650m.
The group is now expecting revenue of £1.65bn for the year and pretax profit of between £180m and £200m. “With the lower than anticipated sales rate due to the more subdued autumn housing market, they are more likely to be towards the lower end of the range,” it said.
The group has also said it will cut the number of sales outlets to 113, down from its earlier guidance of 117, and lower than both the 125 operated over the period and the 120 operated the previous year. Weekly reservations per outlet were down to 0.49, from 0.63 last year. Cancellations were up 25%, taking this down to an average of 0.36.
Chair Richard Akers said: “Following the usual summer slowdown we reported in our 2023 results announcement, the housing market has remained subdued through the autumn. The business has had to adapt to this more difficult trading environment in terms of build rate and operating costs.”
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