Galliford Try reports housing order book up £100m

The housebuilding and construction group Galliford Try says it is generating better than expected house sales and has an order book up £100m on last year.

In an interim management statement for the period 1 January 2010 to the date the firm has £443m of house sales reserved, contracted or completed. £308m is for the current financial year to 30 June 2010 which compares with £400m and £288m last year.

Gallifrod Try says it is on track to deliver anticipated increase in completions during the second half and that it continue to be ahead of its targets in securing new land to deliver its three-year housebuilding expansion strategy.

Its landbank stands at 9,700 plots of which half was secured at current market values, this comapres with 7,800 at the begining of July 2009.

The construction division is performing to expectations with an order book at £1.8bn, up from £1.7bn last year.

Greg Fitzgerald, chief executive of Galliford Try said: “We have seen a positive start to 2010 in housebuilding and recent contract awards in construction have further underpinned the resilience of our business in challenging markets.

"Although we remain in a period of economic uncertainty, the group's finances are robust and we remain confident that we are on track to deliver our transformational housebuilding expansion plan”.