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LONDON (Alliance News) - Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey PLC Monday reported strong growth in completions and average selling prices for 2014, and said it is entering 2015 with a record order book, giving it confidence in its prospects as it starts the first year of its new medium-term target period.
In a statement, Taylor Wimpey said it completed 12,454 homes in 2014, up 6% from 11,696 in 2013, and it achieved an average selling price of GBP234,000, up 11% from GBP210,000 a year earlier.
It said its order book stood at nearly GBP1.40 billion at the end of 2014, up 12% from GBP1.25 billion a year earlier, driven mainly by strong private reservations. The order book represents 6,601 homes, down from 6.627 a year earlier.
"We view this as the optimum size for the business at this point in the cycle," it said.
"Whilst the macro economic outlook is uncertain, with a reduced risk of UK interest rate increases in the near term and sensible mortgage regulation, we believe that the market and political risk for our sector is balanced as we enter 2015, and the outlook remains positive," the company said in an outlook statement.
Taylor Wimpey's net cash position was about GBP113 million at the end of 2014, slightly ahead of its expectations and significantly more than the GBP5.4 million in net cash it had at the end of 2013.
"This is largely as a result of outperformance in underlying trading, whilst at the same time continuing to invest in our landbank as we approached our optimal scale," it said.
By Steve McGrath; stevemcgrath@alliancenews.com; @stevemcgrath1
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