The last year has been one of the most turbulent and difficult in recent memory for the housebuilding sector. Bar the artificial and short-lived market hiatus of the covid lockdown, the market has seen nothing like the drop in demand that came after last September’s mini-Budget since the prolonged misery of the global financial crisis. Weekly sales rates initially collapsed and, according to mortgage lender Halifax, house prices by this September had fallen year-on-year at the steepest rate since 2009.

However, despite this turmoil, in Housing Today’s 2023 top 50 rankings of the UK’s biggest commercial housebuilders by housing turnover, an eerie calm has prevailed. There are few changes in the rankings of the largest firms, with no changes at all in the top 11 places. In the numbers they post, there are also precious few signs of the market misery reported every week in the news, with steady growth in revenue across the cohort.

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