Estate agents wondering which house builders they should work with now have a unique list of the UK’s most successful construction firms to consider before making their decision.

According to new research just out, the fastest-growing house builder in the UK is Countryside Properties (pictured, above), which has sold 27% more properties year-on-year, the latest data shows.

This puts it way ahead of Galliford Try (+7.8%), Redrow (+7.5%), Bellway (+2.9%) Taylor Wimpey (+2.7%) Persimmon (+2.5%) and Barratt (+1.1%).

Two builders are peddling backwards; Berkeley Homes and McCarthy & Stone have seen reductions in the number of homes sold.

Despite its weak performance this year, Barratt remains the No.1 house builder in the UK, selling 17,579 homes during 2018 ahead of Persimmon on 16,449, Taylor Wimpey on 14,933 and Bellway on 10,307, the only company to build more than 10,000 a year.

“Despite ongoing market uncertainty and other issues to have impacted the new build sector over the last few years, the nation’s big housebuilders have continued to support the market with the delivery of new homes,” says Michael Stone, founder of Stone Real Estate, which conducted the research.

“This has been vital in meeting the demand for housing from first-time buyers in particular and the consistently higher transaction levels and price growth achieved by the new build sector when compared to the traditional market is the proof in the pudding of the great work that has taken place.”

Stone says much of the growth in new-build sales has been generated by first time buyer demand via the government’s ongoing Help to Buy scheme.

Builder by average price