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Who are Britain’s best house builders

Bellway Homes FlagBerkeley Homes FlagCharles Church FlagPersimmon Homes FlagBovis Homes FlagBloor Homes FlagDavid Wilson Homes FlagBarratt Homes FlagTaylor Wimpey flagNHBC Pride in the Job - Awards for Quality homesHBF Survey 5 Star rated housebuilder

Perhaps more accurately, rather than trying to find the best house builder it would be advisable to make every effort to avoid some of the worst house builders.


Quality

Ultimately the finished quality of the home you buy will depend on the individual site manager building it. However house builders can influence how your new home is built in several ways including the speed of construction, the number and quality of site staff, head office visits, specifications and the type and methods of construction.  See also snagging defect photographs


NHBC Quality AwardsAwards

The better house builders tend to win the most NHBC Quality Awards. Look for the NHBC Pride in the Job Winners flag to see if the Site Manger cares about the quality of his homes. See our league table to see which builders consistently win the most NHBC awards.


Be wary of magazine and newspaper awards. They have so many categories everyone is a 'winner' of something - provided of course the house builder has paid for plenty of advertising!




Star rating

This is given to those house builders who participate the HBF customer satisfaction survey. Don’t read too much into star rating or the flags on the sites! In 2012, all but three of the 16 largest house builders who took part, attained a five star rating. In 2021, of 48 house builders, 42 were 5-star rated, the remaining six given a 4-star rating.  However, if any house builder is not rated five stars, it should act as a warning regarding both quality and service. See results table for the last 10 years builder star ratings.


Value for money

What discounts or deals are available. How does the price per square foot compare with older homes. What is included as standard. How much choice is available regarding specification and options.



Customer care when you have problemsAfter sales service

What is the level of customer service. Ask existing buyers on the development about their experiences with after sales service and customer care, especially if they have reported  problems.


National house builders

The larger well-known national plc. house builders have a proven track record and dedicated customer care departments who may be better able to respond to any problems you may have for a period of two years from the time you move in. The largest companies can demand the best deals (national agreements) from their suppliers to give you, their customer, the best value. However, these large organisations are numbers and profit driven and use their size to maximise returns for shareholders and future expansion plans. Indeed, it is becoming more difficult theses days to know who is actually building your home with so many of the plc. house builders merging or being acquired.


Generally, the largest builders dictate the most demanding construction programmes, these being monitored on a weekly basis to ensure the production targets are being achieved. This means that your new home may not have time to fully dry out between building stages and it is possible that the quality of work could be sacrificed to achieve the completion date.


The larger the builder, the more they tend to invest on the promotion of their developments. They have full time sales advisors based on their developments, often with several fully furnished show houses with landscaped gardens. The financial outlay of this may be at the expense of the standard specification, which is often lower than that available from competing smaller house builders. There may also be less choice and flexibility from the larger builder as their regional offices are tied to national agreements and the resultant specifications set by the builder’s group head office.

For more information:-


Our independent new home customer satisfaction survey


HBF new home customer satisfaction survey results


HBF House Builder Star Ratings


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House Builder

Total homes built in 2021/22

 NHBC Quality Awards 2022

Homes per

NHBC award ratio *

Annual turnover

£million

 Profit

£million

Average selling Price

Landbank

Number of Plots

MILLER

3,849

10

385

£1,046

£203.6 - 19.5%

£275,000

12,057

CALA

1,835

12

152

£713.00

£24.4 -  3.4%

£434,000

15,836

COUNTRYSIDE

4,053

4

1,013

£1,033

£123.8 - 19.0%

£434,000

53,118

BARRATT

17,243

92**

187

£4,812

£812.2 - 27%

£288,800

82,303

CREST

2,407

2

1203

£787

£86.9 - 11%

£359,000

36,985

TAYLOR WIMPEY

14,302

62

230

£4,285

£804.6 - 19.3%

£332,000

85,000

REDROW

4,032

24

168

£1,340

£140.0 - 10.4%

£330,400

25,130

BELLWAY

7,522

35

214

£2,225

£236.7 - 14.5%

£293,054

44,589

BERKELEY

4,632

8

579

£2,348

£551.5 - 23.5%

£603,000

66,163

PERSIMMON

14,551

3

4,850

£3,610

£966.8 - 28.0%

£237,078

67,089

BOVIS (Vistry)

8,639

26

143

£2,694

£346.0 -  9.2%

£305,100

42,000

LINDEN (Vistry)

8,639

26

143

£2,694

£346.0 -  9.2%

£305,100

42,000

KEEPMOAT

2,460

6

410

£406.00

(£19.5) Loss

£165,000

24,000

BLOOR

3,548

8

443

£1,033

£123.8 - 19.0%

£290,000

/

MORRIS

1,033

0

1033

£332.00

£22.6 - 7%

£331,800

4,000

AVANT

1,921

3

640

£505.00

(£3.0) Loss

£286,000

7,921

* Based on latest figures for total number of homes built in financial year up to 13 April 2020   ** Includes David Wilson Homes

Figures in (brackets) are previous year available. Linden became part of Bovis Homes t/a Vistry in January 2020.


Small house builders


Which builder get the most complaints?


Can house builder surveys be trusted?

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