<p><span>Barratt has started its new financial year “well”, seeing a 14% increase in completions during the period from July 1 to October 13 against the equivalent period last year.</span></p><p><span>Issuing a trading update today (October 16), the volume housebuilder said that during the 15-week period it saw “good customer demand” and had achieved 3,252 home completions.</span></p><p></p><p><span>Its sales rate was 0.72 net private reservations per active outlet per average week, matching the same period last year. It operated from an average of 374 active outlets, compared to the previous year's 365.</span></p><p></p><p><span>As of October 13 2019, the firm’s total forward sales were “strong”, consisting of 12,963 homes (October 14 2018: 12,903 homes). But their values dropped, from £3,146.5 million in October 2018 to this year’s £3,070.2 million.</span></p><p></p><p><span>The company added that, based on market conditions, it continued to expect to increase volumes for FY20 “towards the lower end of our medium term target range” of 3% to 5% per year.</span></p><p></p><p><span>David Thomas, Barratt’s ceo, said: “We have started our new financial year well, with a good sales rate and a healthy forward order book. As the only major housebuilder to be awarded a five-star rating for customer satisfaction for ten years in a row, we …