Can housebuilders continue strong run after govt boost?

Leading UK equity managers are backing housebuilder shares as government policies set the scene for further outperformance.

A sub-sector of eight FTSE All Share housebuilders is up 42.7% year-to-date, according to Morningstar, compared to 15.7% for the index. Dan Nickols, manager of the £629m Old Mutual UK Smaller Companies fund, as well as Paul Spencer and Richard Bullas, running the Franklin UK Smaller Companies fund, predict even more upside amid government-backed schemes intending to kick-start lending and buying activity. In March’s Budget, Chancellor George Osborne announced the Help to Buy mortgage guarantee scheme, in effect an extension of two existing programmes, FirstBuy and NewBuy. That foll...