Shares in Taylor Wimpey fell more than 9 per cent today after the housebuilder revealed orders have almost halved in the past year and warned market conditions show no sign of improvement.

Taylor Wimpey reported, in its interim management statement, that its current order book for houses was at 6,607, down from 11,074 last year. Shares in the company fell by 18.87 per cent to 10.75p.

The group said it was continuing to price competitively in local markets to maintain sales. It said that it had secured the sales it needed to make for 2008, and was expecting to hold current prices for the next few weeks.

Private reservations have been hit by the impact of higher-than-normal cancellations; in the second half of the year reservations were about 27 per cent lower than this time last year, at an average of 165 per cent a week.

Taylor Wimpey's build rate is running below its sales rates, at about 40 per cent of normal levels.

The housebuilder, whose share price has lost more than 83 per cent since the beginning of this year, said that it saw no recovery for the housing market in the short term, but hoped that the Bank of England's move to cut interest rates by 1.5 per cent last week would help to stabilise the market.

"Increased mortgage availability and a return of customer confidence remain the key requirements for a sustained market recovery," it said.

Other figures released today added to the gloom in the property market. The latest survey from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) showed that estate agents sold an average of only 10.9 properties per firm in the 12 weeks to the beginning of November, less than one a week, and the lowest level of sales since the series began in 1978.

Nationwide, the UK's biggest building society, gave warning that the overall mortgage lending market would fall by 80 per cent this year.

At the beginning of October, Taylor Wimpey moved to reassure shareholders over discussions on the terms of its debt. In today's statement, the group said talks to renegotiate its debt, which stands at £1.9 million, were continuing and, as previously announced, it does not expect them to conclude until the new year.

The housebuilder has followed through previously announced restructuring measures and reduced staff levels in the UK by 1,900. It has also made a £75 million cut to land purchase commitments until the end of next year.

It gave warning today that, as market conditions show no sign of improvement, "further provisions" against its land and work in progress were increasingly likely.

In the US, the soaring rate of repossessions continues to leave the group with high stock levels. Sales are down on the first half of 2008, and cancellations have increased.

The group said that it expects to make a modest full-year profit on its North American operations, although it expects the market to remain weak at the turn of next year.

"Material recovery in the US market will require some equilibrium in the existing home market, which will take some time to develop, although we are hopeful that the actions of the US Government will start to flow through to the market effectively during the first half of 2009," it said.

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