Gleeson sees new home reservations up

11th May 2012 11:49

Gleeson the house builder and strategic land specialist, says it has opened seven new sales outlets since the end of last year and seen an increase in reservations.The volume of net private reservations in the period to the end of April increased by 49% compared to the same period of last year, and the order book for future completions is 131 homes, an improvement of 72%. The total number of private development homes sold by the end of June is expected to exceed the previous financial year by approximately 60%.Gleeson confirms that mortgage availability is still a problem but has seen a "significant" level of activity arising from the government's FirstBuy scheme.The firm has also continued to take advantage of low land prices in the north of England, purchasing a further 11 sites since the beginning of the year, which have added 522 plots to the total land bank. The shares were broadly flat in morning trading.BS