Homebuilder Taylor Wimpey has posted a 21% rise in profits for the 12 months to 31 December, benefiting from a "resilient" UK housing market.

Profit before tax and exceptional items came in at £764.3m ($950m), compared with a £603.8m profit in the same period a year earlier. Revenues increased 17% to £3.68bn.

The firm completed a total of 14,112 homes last year, excluding joint ventures, with the average selling price of a home in the UK rising 11% to £255,000.

"In 2016 we delivered an excellent performance set against an uncertain political and economic environment that stabilised in the final quarter," Taylor Wimpey chief executive Pete Redfern said.

"The outlook for 2017 is for ongoing stability and incremental price growth, which is a healthy backdrop for our business and our customers."

Britain's third-biggest homebuilder said its house sales rate for the year to 19 February had risen to 0.91 sales per outlet per week from 0.77 in the corresponding period a year earlier.

"The early signs of stability and resilience of the market following the EU referendum, which were encouraging, continued and we believe the risk of material impact from this in the short term has significantly reduced," it stated.

"We believe that a cautiously regulated market and low interest rate environment is likely to prolong the period of stability that we are seeing in the UK housing market."