Taylor Wimpey expects rising house sales amid planning reforms
Falling mortgage costs will help sales, the housebuilder said, while recent planning changes will help it get more houses approved.
Taylor Wimpey has reported “good levels” of demand for its houses so far in 2025, adding that Labour’s planning reforms will help get more homes approved in the coming years.
The FTSE 100 builder said the start of the spring selling season has been “robust”, while affordability is “moving in the right direction”.
Chief executive Jennie Daly said changes to the approvals system “are capable of delivering a real step change in planning outcomes”.
“We look forward to seeing increased resources and a focus on the implementation phase… and deliver much-needed new homes across the UK.”
England’s planning system has long been criticised for making it too easy to reject applications to build homes, and as a hurdle to fighting the chronic shortage of housing across the country.
Labour’s changes include hiking approvals targets for local authorities and making it easier to build on parts of the greenbelt.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he wants to end a “challenge culture” on infrastructure projects, including new homes.
Taylor Wimpey, one of the biggest homebuilders in the UK, sounded the optimistic note despite house sales remaining well below 2021 levels.
In the years after that, mortgage costs surged across the UK when interest rates rose following Liz Truss’s mini budget in 2022, hobbling the industry.
Taylor Wimpey expects to sell up to 10,800 homes in 2025, while it fell just short of the 10,000 mark last year, that compares to about 14,000 four years ago.
Meanwhile, it also said it had seen “modest” inflation in the cost of building, marking a slight pick-up in the speed of price rises, which fell last year following a period of rapid inflation previously.
Housebuilders are among the many UK companies facing rising costs as a result of the October Budget, which include higher employment taxes.
Nonetheless, it pointed to a slowly improving picture for house sales this year, after falling interest rates helped bring mortgage costs down for buyers in recent months.
Taylor Wimpey said there is “good mortgage availability at competitive rates as lenders remain committed to the mortgage market”.
“As a result, the encouraging sales performance seen towards the end of 2024 has continued in the year to date.”
