LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's biggest housebuilder Barratt Developments (>> Barratt Developments Plc) said it might slow the pace of construction and rethink its land buying programme to prepare itself for an expected slowdown sparked by the vote to leave the EU.

Britain's property sector has been one of the worst hit since the June 23 referendum, with Barratt and other housebuilders seeing their market values plunge while investors pulled out cash from commercial funds, forcing many to be suspended.

Estate agency Foxtons (>> Foxtons Group PLC) has said Brexit is likely to result in a drop in its full-year earnings.

Barratt, which posted a 5 percent rise in the number of homes it built in the year to the end of June, to 17,319, said it was now taking steps to reduce its risk ahead of a potential fall in demand.

Barratt Chief Executive David Thomas said the market was now more likely to slow.

"We would look at future land commitments, our current commitments, we would also look at our build programmes and the extent to which we should slow down our build programmes," he told Reuters.

"The principle focus of our reassessment will be about where we have approved land but we have not yet submitted for planning or alternatively where land is coming to the market that we could bid on and we are looking at whether we will or we won't," he said.

Barratt said its full-year pre-tax profit is expected to increase by around 20 percent to roughly 680 million pounds ($903.8 million), in line with expectations.

Shares in Barratt were down 3.9 percent to 397 pence at 0835 BST.

(Reporting by Costas Pitas; editing by Kate Holton)

Stocks treated in this article : Barratt Developments Plc, Foxtons Group PLC