Reporting 18% growth in completions to 2,178 in the first half of the year, Redrow chairman Steve Morgan said central London was the only place in the country where the house builder had seen a slowdown.

The overall rise in output helped Redrow to deliver record first-half profits of £104m, up 14%, on turnover ahead 8% at £603m.

Morgan said: “We are only at the beginning of the spring selling season, however demand for new homes remains robust.

“We ended the first half with a record order book up 51% on this time last year, and in the first six weeks of the second half have secured 455 private reservations, 10% ahead of last year.

“In the period, the average selling price of our private homes increased 2% due to the shift of our London business away from high priced Central London apartments to concentrate more on the outer London commuter market where demand remains strong. “

He added: “The only area where we have seen a slow-down is in Central London.  However, this is only having a limited effect on the group as we made the decision some time ago to re-focus our London business on outer London where the demand is from the local market and remains robust.”

Outside London Redrow’s private average selling price increased by 11% to £300,000 due to a combination of geographical mix change, reduction of impaired sites and price inflation.

Since the end of December Redrow obtained planning consent on tits Colindale site in North London converting a further 2,900 plots from forward to current land.

Morgan said the firm continued to invest heavily in land with total plots 18% ahead at 21,435 plotscompared to the summer.