Telford Homes plummets on Brexit fears

London housebuilder Telford Homes gave the City a fright on Wednesday as it admitted Brexit fears were hitting sales of its dearer properties.

Investors marked the shares down 14%, or 54p, to 340p as the company’s update heralded a difficult autumn for the housing market as negotiations between the UK and the EU move towards an uncertain climax.

While sales of homes below the £600,000 threshold for Help to Buy support in London have held up well, the market is much tougher for above the limit, around a quarter of Telford’s sales, as buyers take a “wait and see” approach.

To hit its £50 million profit target, Telford has just under 90 homes to sell and “just under 25” are priced over £600,000.

Chief executive Jon Di-Stefano admitted: “If the market falls off the edge of a cliff we might not sell these.”

The building boss added that the current spell of uncertainty may linger until “some time into next year”.