UK must plan exit from housing schemes-industry groups

* Data shows risk of new housing bubble

* Builders call for clarity on exit from support scheme

By Brenda Goh

LONDON, July 4 (Reuters) - Housebuilders and mortgagelenders called for more clarity on how the government will winddown a support scheme for struggling housebuyers which hasboosted developers' profit forecasts amid fears of a newproperty bubble.

Demand for houses and mortgages has risen sharply in recentmonths since finance minister George Osborne introduced aprogramme of loan guarantees for aspiring homeowners with smalldeposits.

Data from mortgage lender Halifax showed house prices roseat their fastest annual rate in nearly three years in the secondquarter while banks reported a sharp rise in mortgage lending.

Housebuilders such as Taylor Wimpey, Persimmon, Galliford Try and Redrow lifted profitforecasts this week, shoring up confidence that Britain'shousing market is firmly recovering.

"No industry should depend on those kind of measures longterm...there needs to be an exit plan," Taylor Wimpey's ChiefExecutive Pete Redfern told Reuters on Thursday.

"The note of caution I'm sounding is that let's not assumethis should be here forever. Let's have a plan that it should behere for 2-3 years and then sensibly withdrawn rather than takenaway overnight," he said.

The Building Societies Association, which representslenders, last month called for a "clearly defined exit strategy" to avoid distortion in the housing market in three years time.

Under the first part of the scheme, introduced in April, thegovernment provides equity loans for new build homes. Thesupport will be extended to existing homes from January.

The two parts of the scheme will each run for three yearsbut the government has not provided details on how it will shutit down.

"Policymakers must be prepared to quickly pull the plug onthe 'Help to Buy' mortgage guarantee scheme at the first sign ofany housing price bubble developing," said Howard Archer, IHSGlobal Insight's chief UK and European economist.

The market could be in for a rude shock after raising itsbets on housebuilders, said Panmure Gordon analyst Mark Hughes.Housebuilders now on average trade at 1.59 times price to bookvalue, compared with 0.86 times a year ago, he said.

"Everyone is mesmerised and blinded by the positive commentscoming out of the sector and I don't think the market's lookingat valuations," he said.

"When the government stimulus is taken away, if the nextgovernment doesn't put in some sort of parachute stimuluspayment into the market, it will fall away completely and thathas the danger of causing another slowdown."