Barratt shares fall 12% as property stocks pay price of mortgage chaos

Shares in the housebuilder Barratt fell 12% yesterday, and other firms in the construction, property and building materials sector were also hit hard by mayhem in the mortgage market.

More than four out of ten mortgages have been taken off the market since the chancellor’s mini-budget on Friday, and companies involved in property and construction have seen their value fall as the UK stock market was hit.

Of the 12 companies whose shares fell furthest on Thursday six of them were involved in the property market directly or indirectly.

Shares in Barratt Developments fell 12.54% to 324.2p; Taylor Wimpey fell by 7.17%, to 84.44p; Persimmon fell 5.56% to £11.80; and Berkeley’s shares were down by 4.64%.

Shares in Rightmove, the property portal, fell by 5.50%, to 477.80p, and shares in Kingfisher, which owns the hardware chains B&Q and Screwfix, fell by more than 4.5%.

More than 300 residential mortgages were withdrawn from the market in the past day, meaning 40% of products have been taken off the market since the chancellor’s mini-budget on Friday.

Since then 1,621 products have been withdrawn, leaving just 2,340 on sale.

More on Housing

Government warned to reinstate eviction ban to prevent people from losing homes during cost of living crisis

Climate change: Target of building 300,000 homes a year would overshoot England’s entire carbon emission commitment, report warns

House prices on average £20,000 more expensive today than 12 months ago

Related Topics:

Ian King, Sky’s business presenter, said: “This is obviously concerning the mortgage market right now, a lot of pressure on lenders, a lot of lenders withdrawing products from the mortgage market.”

The day’s other big fallers are Next, Ocado, Smurfit Kappa, Whitbread, Sainsbury’s and DS Smith.

Advertisement