Homes offered at cut price

HALF-price homes are up for grabs as a house builder tries to kick-start the property market.

Barratt Homes is offering cut-price deals to investors in East Yorkshire as it desperately tries to survive the credit crunch.

It is the latest in a raft of incentives being offered by the Newcastle based firm, which last month offered to pay stamp duty and protect buyers from a decline in value over the next three years.

Now it has been reported investors who are buying five or more apartments are being offered 43% off.

It is said the developer has been left with empty homes as buyers struggle to get mortgages.

The company has just revealed a 68% drop in pre-tax profits, from pounds 424.8m in the first half of 2007 to pounds 137.3m this year.

And its forward sales were also down by nearly 51% to pounds 697.6m.

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