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British housebuilders deliver upbeat trading statements

April 27 (Reuters) - Two of Britain's biggest housebuilders on Thursday expressed confidence for 2017, saying that strong demand from first-time buyers and good mortgage availability had propped up sales growth.

Taylor Wimpey (LSE: TW.L - news) said it is optimistic that the British general election will not disrupt positive market sentiment, provided that no major policy changes are announced.

The company said its total order book value stood at about 2.21 billion pounds ($2.85 billion) in the first four months of 2017, up about 2 percent year on year.

It also said it would record an exceptional gross provision of about 130 million pounds against its 2017 accounts after changes to how it charges customers for leased property.

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Persimmon (Frankfurt: 882058 - news) , meanwhile, said that total forward sales revenue including completions was up by about 11 percent year on year at 2.56 billion pounds ($3.3 billion).

Its weekly private sales rate per site since the start of the year was 4 percent higher despite tougher comparatives. ($1 = 0.7764 pounds)

(Reporting by Esha Vaish in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman)