High prices and Brexit hit UK builders

By Jack Sidders and Neil Callanan

The end of London’s long property boom is starting to ripple across the UK’s homebuilders. Sales of fancier properties in the UK capital and its commuter belt in southern England are drying up at Crest Nicholson, prompting a profit warning from the developer that caused shares to plummet. That comes after Barratt Developments said that reservation rates are edging down, and Bellway’s operating margin narrowed for the first time in almost a decade.