New research from Warwick Estates looked at eight of Britain’s biggest housebuilders to see how they perfomed during the pandemic when compared to 2019.
Homes built
Where the number of homes delivered is concerned, just one managed to go above and beyond their pre-Covid performance in 2020. Vistry Group built 6,131 homes in 2020, 59% more than the previous year.
However, it was Persimmon that delivered the most homes in total at 13,575 although this was 14% less than the previous year. Barrat also delivered 12,604 homes to the market despite seeing a 29% drop compared to 2019, with Bellway seeing a 9% year on year decline despite building 11,921 homes.
Taylor Wimpey endured the biggest decline in the number of homes built during the pandemic. The 9,799 built during 2020 resulted in a 39% year on year drop when compared to their pre-pandemic performance.
Revenues
Vistry Group’s positive pandemic performance means the housebuilder enjoyed a 79% uplift in revenues in 2020 - the only housebuilder to see positive movement.
Unfortunately for Redrow, the housebuilder saw a 37% drop in revenues, the biggest drop of the lot as a result of the pandemic.
Bethan Griffiths, COO of Warwick Estates, commented: “Despite the residential property market rebounding at an alarming rate since the launch of the stamp duty holiday, the pandemic has been problematic for the nation’s housebuilders, to say the least.
"As a result of ongoing and ever-changing restrictions, the vast majority have seen a decline in the number of homes built and the knock-on effect this has had on revenues.
"However, now that we are working our way back to some form of total normality, we expect these vital cogs of the property market to dust themselves down, roll up their sleeves and bounce back.”
