好色先生TV

Galliford Try emerges as the runaway winner in trading updates from three housebuilders released this morning.

The Middlesex-based builder, also heavily involved in general contracting, ended June with net cash of 拢35m at 30 June 2009, wiping out the 拢2m debt it had at the same time last year.

Sales of its homes were up 7% on last year, at 拢161m, although housing completions fell to 1,769 units from 2,524 last year.

The firm said that 88% or 拢1.7bn of its work had come from the public sector.

Meanwhile, Barratt Developments said it continued to meet targets on completions and margins in the second half of its financial year. Completions for the whole year fell to 13,202, from 18,588 a year earlier, and prices down 14%.

Group chief executive Mark Clare said: 鈥淲e have seen higher sales rates, lower cancellations and prices levelling.鈥�

Redrow also saw a dramatic fall in its average sales price, from 拢156,900 to 拢137,500, a 14% fall. The firm completed 2,113 homes in the year ending 30 June, down from 3,925. It warned that its trading results were at the 鈥渓ower end of analyst's estimates鈥�.

Both Barratt and Redrow said a mortgage drought put a continued recovery in peril. Redrow said that the drought in the mortgage market was "without doubt... a major obstacle to the recovery of the housing market".

It added: "We are of the view that resolving this issue can play a significant role in a recovery of the economy as a whole."