HOUSEBUILDER Redrow is launching a new range of modern family homes to consolidate its position in the industry and strengthen average selling prices.

The Ewloe-based group, near Chester, headed by founder and Liverpool entrepreneur Steve Morgan, revealed in a trading update today that average selling prices for the year to June 30 have slipped from £156,900 to around £137,500 for the 2,113 new homes it completed, down from 3,925 the year before.

Its new housing design is part of a review "to return the business to its historic strength in traditional family housing."

The new range will be rolled out this autumn with a full sales launch set for January 2010, reducing the number of apartments and three-storey houses Redrow builds.

Mr Morgan, who returned to chair the company earlier this year, said that in light of the extreme trading conditions, particularly in the first half of the last financial year, Redrow’s results are expected to be "around the lower end of analysts’ current estimates."

He also warned that a revaluation of the current land and work in progress will be included in the full year results set for release on September 10.

Debts up to June this year stood at £215m compared with £269m last December. They are lower than the £225m target and within the group’s £425m of bank facilities.

The "chronic shortage of mortgage supply" and downward valuations by surveyors representing mortgage lenders are seen as the biggest obstacle to the recovery of the housing market.

But Redrow says it has resumed building "at a controlled rate" across its developments to ensure it is well placed to meet the anticipated seasonal upturn in demand in September.

Mr Morgan said: "Moving forwards, we believe we will be competitively placed in the market with the launch of the new product range and a focus upon our heritage in family housing.

"We enter the new financial year in good spirit."