UK-based Crest Nicholson warns on profits

UK housebuilder Crest Nicholson has cut its annual profit forecast after warning that conditions in the UK housing sector are worsening.

Crest Nicholson, said that the number of sales per outlet per week it expected to make had fallen from 0.5 in June to 0.25 in the seven weeks to August 18 “representing a progressively deteriorating trend.”

Rapidly increasing interest rates in the UK are pushing up monthly mortgage repayments across the country, leading to a slowdown in housing sales and falls in asking prices.

Crest Nicholson said that the increasing cost of mortgage borrowing in recent weeks had hit transactions particularly hard in recent weeks.