Taylor Wimpey cuts 2026 completions guidance to 10,500 homes after subdued autumn

Taylor Wimpey has lowered its forecast for 2026 UK completions to about 10,500 homes and said adjusted operating profit will land around the bottom of the £262m to £299m consensus range, after a weaker autumn selling season.

The guidance, issued in a trading update on 11 November 2026 for the year to 31 December, sits below the 10,600 to 10,800 completions the housebuilder set out at its half-year results on 31 July. It also compares with the 10.7k homes the company says it delivered in the UK in 2025.

Jennie Daly, Chief Executive, said: "The Autumn selling season has been more subdued, as higher mortgage rates and living costs continue to reduce customer affordability."

The company-compiled consensus range for full-year Group adjusted operating profit, published on 6 November, is £262m to £299m. At the half year, Taylor Wimpey reported first-half adjusted operating profit down 19.4% to £129.7m.

Sales rates and order book

Taylor Wimpey said its net private sales rate per outlet per week between 29 June and 8 November 2026 was 0.60, against 0.63 in the same period last year, with the cancellation rate unchanged at 17%. Stripping out bulk deals, the autumn rate was 0.54 compared with 0.61.

For the year to date the rate was 0.69 (2025: 0.72), with cancellations at 15% (2025: 16%).

Measure	2026	2025
Autumn net private sales rate	0.60	0.63
Autumn rate excluding bulk deals	0.54	0.61
Year-to-date net private sales rate	0.69	0.72

The order book excluding joint ventures stood at 6,839 homes at 8 November, down from 7,253 a year earlier, with a value of about £1,984m against about £2,116m.

The company said pricing showed further marginal softening and incentives remained elevated. It continues to expect build cost inflation of 3% to 4% for the full year.

Outlets and land

Against the softer sales picture, Taylor Wimpey said it is operating from 225 outlets, up about 9% on the 206 a year ago, and has opened 59 new outlets so far this year compared with 51 in 2025. It attributed the growth to early action to capture opportunities from planning reform.

The company approved about 5,000 plots in the year to date and said its short-term landbank fell to about 73,000 plots at the end of October, from about 75,000 at 28 June, reflecting a targeted reduction in landbank length.

Conversions from its strategic pipeline rose to about 5,000 plots year to date, from about 2,000 in 2025, leaving the strategic pipeline at about 131,000 potential plots at the end of October.

Your First Home

Taylor Wimpey welcomed the government's Your First Home scheme but said it was waiting for further detail, including on funding allocation and implementation.

Daly said: "We welcome the Government's Your First Home Scheme to support getting people onto the property ladder. Our strong first time buyer proposition and growing outlet base position us well as the scheme develops."

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government announced Your First Home on 26 September 2026, saying it would be confirmed at the Budget. According to GOV.UK, the scheme offers first-time buyers of new-build homes in England a government equity loan of 20% of the purchase price, interest free for five years, with a deposit of at least 2.5%.

Households must earn £110,000 or less outside London, or £140,000 or less within London, and property price caps will apply in each area. Buyers must purchase from a developer signed up to the scheme, and developers will be expected to make a contribution to help cover costs.

Pre-registration is due to open before the end of 2026, with applications expected to open in February 2027.

Cash and buyback

Taylor Wimpey expects to end 2026 with about £250m of net cash, after returning about £240m to shareholders through dividends and share buybacks. The half-year results included an interim dividend of 1.20 pence per share and a £42m buyback programme.

By close of business on 6 November the company had bought about 39 million shares for about £31.5m of the planned £41.9m programme, which it expects to complete no later than 31 December 2026.

Daly and Group Finance Director Chris Carney hosted a conference call for analysts and investors at 9.00am on 11 November.