Good morning: There is further evidence of the extraordinary boom in house prices this morning with an update from one of the UK’s largest housebuilders and the latest house price survey from the Nationwide building society. Alongside full-year results Barratt Developments reported “very strong consumer demand”, driven by the stamp duty cut and pent up demand. David Thomas, its chief executive, said: “The sales performance across all regions in the new financial year to date has been encouraging.”The actual numbers shouldn’t surprise shareholders — profit fell 45.9 per cent to £491.8 million, on the back of an 28 per cent fall in revenue to £3.41 billion in the year to the end of June — after a comprehensive full-year trading update in July.

Source: The Times September 02, 2020 08:03 UTC