Major housebuilders on course to miss out on five-star customer status

A number of major housebuilders including Taylor Wimpey, Crest Nicholson and Avant are on course to miss out on top-rank customer satisfaction scores, according to the latest data published by the Home Builders Federation.

Rolling customer satisfaction data just published for the second quarter of the survey year, covering January to March of this year, shows that developer Avant, which achieved four-star status last year, has fallen further into three-star status, making it by far the worst performing major builder in terms of customer satisfaction.

Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey and Keepmoat are shown as both on track to lose their prized five-star ranking, according to the figures, while Crest Nicholson is showing a worsening four-star performance.

However, Taylor Wimpey, Keepmoat and Avant all said that more recent and as yet unpublished data showed they had in more recent months managed to considerably improve performance.

The figures for Taylor Wimpey, Avant, Keepmoat and Crest Nicholson come amid a wider drop off in customer satisfaction, with the average customer satisfaction score now down almost 2.5 percentage points in major builders since their recent quality peaks, as housebuilders have struggled to meet demand amid supply chain shortages and the post-pandemic boom.

Under the Home Builders Federation’s (HBF) system, builders that score 90% or above are rated as five-star, with 80% the four-star and 70% the three star boundaries. Housebuilders are awarded their annual official ranking in March every year, based on data from the 12 months to the previous September. 

Following a series of build quality scandals in the 2010s, the ability to demonstrate five-star quality has become seen as increasingly important.

>> See also: Latest customer satisfaction data shows Avant dropping to three-star status

The HBF figures showed that Avant’s headline customer satisfaction score dropped in the second quarter to 75.4%, down from 77.5% in the previous quarter, a decline of more than 17 percentage points since prior to its takeover by Berkeley de Vere in 2021.

Avant, which is now led by controversial former Persimmon boss Jeff Fairburn, is set on an expansion programme to more than triple in size bringing output to more than 6,000 homes a year.

Asked about the sharp decline, an Avant Homes spokesperson said that since the data for the HBF’s published ratings was gathered, its customer satisfaction rating had risen to 80.5%. This would still leave it the lowest scoring of any volume builder, but would make it a four-star housebuilder.

The spokesperson said: “This is testament to the effectiveness of the measures we have undertaken to enhance our customer satisfaction scores.

“We remain committed to further improving the homebuying and aftercare experience for all our customers supported by our active participation in the New Homes Quality Code.

“We remain dedicated to ensuring our customers benefit from a high-quality product underpinned by excellent customer service as we continue to expand our multi-tenure offer throughout our regions.”

Partnerships housebuilder Keepmoat recorded a score of 89.8% for the quarter, up from 89.4%, but still leaving the formerly five-star builder in four-star territory. However, a spokesperson for the group said, likewise, that its performance had improved since the period covered by the HBF’s data.

They said: “Our score as of Monday 2 October 2023 is actually 91% and we are on target to be over 92% when the final scores are announced in February 2024.”

Taylor Wimpey, like Keepmoat, marginally improved its customer satisfaction score in the January-March reporting period, but remained in four-star territory, registering 89.3%, up from 89.2%. The housebuilder still has six months to regain ground if it wants to retain its official five-star status in March next year.

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However, a spokesperson for Taylor Wimpey said the business had since improved and was “currently on trajectory to achieve 5-star status” for the next completion period “thanks to its commitment to customer satisfaction and dedication to quality”.

They said: “The current score reflects legacy ratings from 2022 and does not take account of the improvements made over recent months.”

The spokesperson added that Taylor Wimpey was committed to delivering excellent quality and service and that improving customer service was a “key focus” for the business. “We remain committed to the New Homes Quality Code and quality assurance processes are embedded at every stage of the building process,” they said. “Focusing on build quality is vital to customer satisfaction and our business, and we have continued to improve our average Construction Quality Review score and recently reported the highest compliance score of the volume housebuilders.”

Crest Nicholson scored 85.5% in the customer satisfaction metric, a fall from the 86.1% registered in the previous quarter. The firm declined to comment.

The latest ratings show privately-owned builder Bloor is the most highly rated major builder, with a customer satisfaction score of 95.4%, followed by Cala at 94.2%.

On average the 12 builders rated in the “major” category by HBF saw their scores fall back by 0.2 percentage points in the quarter, with the 12 generating an average score of 89.6% - the first time this number has fallen under a 90% five-star rating level since the third quarter of 2019.