黑洞社区

Those who believe it is not, pointed to the failed attempt by land buying fund Landbank to attract enough investors for a flotation.

While the former hopes to make cash from the rental market and the latter planned to wheel and deal in land, the collapse of Landbank must be a concern for Pedley as he tries to build his book of investors.

Speaking a year to the day after housebuilders reached their share price nadir, Steven Morgan鈥檚 ex-right hand man at Redrow said: 鈥淎 year ago it would have been more difficult and if we鈥檇 left it another year we would have missed the opportunity.鈥�

It hasn鈥檛 been an easy sell. One City insider said: 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been hawking it around for quite a while and have seen absolutely everyone in the City.鈥�

鈥淲hat I think killed off Landbank,鈥� said Robin Hardy at KBC Peel Hunt, 鈥渨as the realisation that not even Berkeley Group is getting land at good prices.鈥�

Perversely, it could be the whiff of an upturn that makes life difficult for Pedley. Hardy added: 鈥淗ousebuilders may be less inclined to sell to bulk buyers if they believe, rightly or wrongly, that there鈥檚 a queue of people round the block willing to pay asking price.鈥�