Barratt, which became the UK’s third-biggest homebuilder after acquiring Wilson Bowden for 2.2 billion pounds early this year said it had made £427.8m pounds in pre-tax profit in the year to end of June. 

Mark Clare, group chief executive of Barratt Developments said:
"Good progress was made in 2007 with improved performance across the board despite the more challenging market and the complexity of the integration of Wilson Bowden."

In addition Barratt Developments achieved a record with its forward sales, which increased by 67.3% from last year, which increased further to £1.7 billion as of last week.

He continued:

"We have already signalled that it would be prudent to assume that the cumulative impact of interest rate increases would result in the housing market tightening in 2007/8. The recent credit squeeze has further affected customer sentiment and pressure on lending institutions has led to a tightening of lending criteria and mortgage availability.

"It is not yet clear how quickly the market will recover but we have to assume that there will be downward pressure on volumes and price inflation in the short-term.”