Bovis Homes sales improve despite mortgage struggle

Bovis declared that its solid land base put it in a good position to sell houses from more sites and achieve growth in 2011.

Chief executive David Ritchie echoed his peers at housebuilders Redrow and Galliford Try in saying the lack of accessible mortgage financing was hampering buyers.

"We don't see a lack of people ... many of our customers are saying that they would like to buy," Ritchie said today, adding that he expected a "relatively static pricing position" into 2011.

House prices jumped 1.8% last month, according to mortgage lender Halifax, while mortgage approvals fell to their lowest levels in seven months in September.

Bovis, one of the smaller listed housebuilders, bought a further 1,381 consented land plots during the period to November 5, predominantly in the south of England, where consumers have less exposure to public sector job cuts.

"Bovis are benefiting from the fact that they're making lots of cheap land acquisitions, especially in the south where demand for houses is positive," said Panmure analyst Rachael Waring.

Shares in Bovis, which have fallen about 8% over the last month, were up 1.4% this morning.

During the period to November 5 the group said it had sold 1,900 houses in transactions expected to complete in 2010, and had over 250 forward sales expected to complete in 2011.

The builder achieved an average sales rate per outlet of 0.42 homes per week compared to 0.37 per week in the same period in 2009 and said it expected the number of active sales outlets to rise to 76 in 2011, an increase of 15%.

Analysts expect Bovis to report a full-year pretax profit of £15.59 million.