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More than 300 residential mortgages were withdrawn from the market in the past day, meaning 40% of products have been taken off the market since the chancellor’s mini-budget on Friday.

Since then 1,621 products have been withdrawn, leaving just 2,340 on sale.

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.