星空传媒

Barratt says it has completed the most number of homes in a decade in a trading update published this morning.

The country鈥檚 biggest housebuilder said it finished 17,579 homes in the year to June 鈥� its best performance for 10 years.

But the number was up by just over 1% from the previous year鈥檚 number of 17,395.

The firm said it was expecting to post a record 拢835m pre-tax profit 鈥� a rise of 10% on 2017鈥檚 拢765m 鈥� when it publishes its annual results on 5 September.

Barratt also confirmed it would be paying special dividends of 拢175m in November 2018 and 2019 as part of its five-year plan to return 拢1.9bn to shareholders.

Thomas added: 鈥淭his has been another strong year for the group, both financially and operationally.鈥�

The firm said its private average selling price rose 5% to 拢329,000.

It said trading in central London had been better than expected. Since May it completed sales on 190 homes at an average selling price of 拢1,190,000.

Earlier this year, chief executive David Thomas (pictured, middle) told 星空传媒 it has stopped buying sites in the zone one and two areas of London and is concentrating on zones three to six, where it is building 1,100 units at a former Nestle factory in Hayes and a further 1,500 units close to the railway station in Harrow.