LONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - British housebuilder TaylorWimpey said it was confident of meeting its full yearexpectations after reporting continued strong trading as thesector continues to benefit from government help.
The company said on Thursday sales rates in the second halfof 2013 were ahead of the same period in 2012, with an averagenet private reservation rate of 0.65 sales per outlook per weekin 2013 to date, up from 0.57 last year.
It said it was fully sold for its targeted 2013 completionsand was building next year's order-book with over 30 percentforward sold for 2014 completions. Its current total order bookcomprises of 7,557 homes with a value of 1.5 billion pounds($2.40 billion).
"We are confident of delivering on our full yearexpectations, and demonstrating further improvement in thequality of our returns," it said.
Analysts expect Taylor Wimpey to post full year pretaxprofits of 250-327 million pounds, Thomson Reuters data showed.
Taylor Wimpey also said it was confident its 2014 operatingmargin could improve by 200-300 basis points thanks to thebetter trading environment and its own investment and said itcontinued to buy higher margin land, approving the purchase of12,386 plots for the 10 months to Oct. 31.
The company's comments come after similar reports of strongtrading from Persimmon and Barratt Developments who have experienced strong appetite for their homes aftergovernment schemes to free up mortgage availability.
Shares in Taylor Wimpey, which have risen 76 percent overthe past year, closed at 103.4 pence on Wednesday valuing thecompany at 3.31 billion pounds.
Barratt Developments (BDEV)
Persimmon (PSN)
Taylor Wimpey (TW.)
