Housebuilder

A new breed of housebuilding chief is emerging. The credit crunch has hatched a hybrid that is leading a revolution in how the industry is run.

The bean counter is becoming a housebuilder. For hairy-arsed builders who relied on gut instinct and had lime under their nails from apprenticeships on the tools, the idea of an accountant running the business used to be anathema. For a start the financial director would get all uppity and pedantic, questioning board expenses and no sense of humour.

Buying a new build home makes perfect sense on so many levels. The standard of home building in the UK is at its peak at the moment and as we are an ever-expanding country the need for housing is currently at an unprecedented level. This is why home builders are investing huge amounts of resources into building the highest quality properties and more and more people are opting to buy new.

25 February 2010

Housebuilder Barratt reported a 33% fall in turnover in the six months to 31 December 2009 following a 27% drop in the volume of new homes constructed during that period compared to the corresponding period in 2008.

Barratt built 5,053 new homes in the six months to 31 December 2009, down from the 6,905 new houses and flats built during the same period a year earlier.