The firm said that two weeks into 2013, consumer sentiment towards the housing market was more positive than it had seen for several years.

The house builder, which is jostling shoulder to shoulder with Barratt to be Britain’s biggest house builder, said it had delivered a 40% uplift in operating profits in 2012.

Margins hit double digits ahead of schedule and the firm is cautiously buying land using proceeds from the sale of its US house building arm.

Pete Redfern, chief executive, said: “As we look forward to 2013, we are confident that we will continue to deliver against our key objectives and target further improvement.”

Taylor Wimpey started this year with a substantial order book of £948m, 14% up on last year and representing  5,966 homes, nearly 600 more homes than the same time last year .

But it said it remained focused on prioritising both short and long term margin performance ahead of volume growth.

Using Government initiatives to stimulate house building, Taylor Wimpey helped customers buy 1,203 homes under the Government’s FirstBuy scheme and 546 homes under the NewBuy and MI New Home schemes.

The house builder also won additional FirstBuy funding for use on selected sites.

In a pre-results trading statement, the house builder said that while mortgage availability remained restricted, some major lenders had recently reduced their rates, a trend it hoped would continue as the Funding for Lending scheme gained traction.

“Subject to ongoing stable market conditions, we anticipate a natural growth in completions in 2013, as our strong order book, land acquisition strategy and planning approvals on strategic sites organically increase our outlet numbers,” he added.