<p>Barratt Developments had an “excellent first half performance”, with home completions up <span>9.2% to 9,077 homes against HY 2019, it said today (January 8).</span></p> <p><span>In a trading update for the six months to December 31 2020, the housebuilder said it had continued to see strong customer demand but with its sales rate levelling off to a “more normalised level” since its October update as anticipated - up </span>11.6% at 0.77 net private reservations per active outlet per week.</p> <p>The total average selling price of Barratt’s homes rose 1.1% to £283,000, with private ASP edging up 2.2% to £319,000.</p> <p>In the half year, the business operated from an average of 342 active outlets, 8.1% down on 2019 due to the delay to site starts caused by the first national lockdown. But it launched 63 new outlets against last year’s 45, above its expectations.</p> <p>With construction activity in Barratt’s first half “slightly ahead” of its planned output – with an average of 298 equivalent homes constructed per week - Barratt said it now had a reduced level of work in progress carried forward into its second half compared to June 2020, which meant a greater reliance on activity in the half year …