Building Homes Datafile

n Bovis Homes blamed bad weather for its results in the first half, but the housebuilder expects to make up for this in the second half. Pre-tax profit rose 8% to £28.6m on turnover 11% higher at £145.2m in the six months to June 30.

Business Fact
Background on UK housebuilders
Terrorist attacks on America have not dented demand for new homes, according to Frank Eaton, chairman of Barratt Developments.

After an initial fall in buyer interest in the US and Britain over the weekend after the September 11 assault on the World Trade Centre in New York normal trade has now resumed.

"Overall the market has continued to be very good over the last two weeks despite the tragedy. Although there has been a slight tightening at the top end of the UK market but our overall reservations are up 9% year on year," Eaton said.

The Trends

White Goods Watch
UK sales of Microwaves
The UK microwave cooker market is experiencing

overall growth this year with features such as built-in grill proving particularly popular.

Total sales are up around 6% year on year with the only real declines being seen in the poorer specification and lower powered end of the market.

Models including a grill have shown a massive 68% increase in sales year-on-year. Other additional features are also popular but none of these shows higher than single digit growth.

Lower power budget end models are now in free fall despite bargain basement prices and sales are down by around 38% year on year - indicating that consumers are choosing quality over price.

Medium power models in both the 601-700 Watt and 701-800 Watt ranges are showing healthy sales increases despite predictions that this part of the market might be becoming saturated. It appears that consumers are trading up old models to those with higher power and more facilities.

Although small in terms of overall market the 801-900 Watt high power end of the market has put on a growth spurt. From a reasonably low base it is seeing a significant 92% increase.

Those looking for any significant trends in the capacity of microwave ovens will be disappointed. Although larger ovens are showing a similar percentage increase to small ones this is from a low starting base and is not considered in the market to be particularly significant.

Did you know?
In the three months to July 2001 an estimated 45 700 homes were started, up 9% on the previous three months, and down 1% compared with the same period a year ago. Private starts were up 11% on the previous three months and at the same level year on year. Source: DETR